City Council, reversing a 1995 stance,voted last night to request state funding for a study of traffic on Route 29, specifically the intersection at Hydraulic. As speculated might happen, Council didn’t express opposition (or support, for that matter) of the proposed Western Bypass. Elizabeth Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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I’ve driven in NYC during rush hour, and I must say it was terrifying. However, not as terrifying as crossing 29 on hydraulic during a power failure.
That is the most dangerous intersection I’ve ever seen. What? the stoplights are out? Oh… well we’re on 29, so we get to zip thru at 65mph without looking! After all, its a bigger road!
So they’re going to spend money to find this out? Hmmm I’ll just tell you for free. It sucks!
Traffic on 29 is terrible; as one enters on Angus Road the line of huge semis bearing down on one is enough to stop one’s heart. The through traffic should be routed to the bypass, which should be built as soon as possible. The Council should study making crossing 29 a human-friendly acitivity. There are no crosswalks north of Angus at present. The major reason for a restudy of the Hydraulic intersection is to be able to build the monster shopping center planned for the Sperry Property, which we most surely do not need. That property’s highest and best use would be as a park, which it now pracitally is.
Sperry’s in the county, so you’d need to lobby the board of supervisors on a zoning change. Unlikely at this juncture. The county will build there, a block later the city must pay for their zoning decisions.
When I moved here in ’94, my first question about 29 was why a bypass around C’ville hadn’t been build a decade or so earlier. If it’s built now, it needs to be much bigger than anything "they" have in mind now. The current design is neither fish nor fowl: not long enough to be a real bypass for through traffic and not interacting enough with extant roads to be a useful local shortcut. If it’s to be a bypass, make it a bypass. Since a bypass helps Lynchburg rather than C’ville, make them ante up the "local" bucks.
Decades of indecision on the issue have made it a nightmare to implement the bypass. Right now we’re seeing enormous county development east of C’ville. We desperately need to figure out highway access to that area before it fills out or we’ll have the eastern bypass issue on the local agenda for decades, too.
What do you mean "we" don’t need? maybe you don’t, but some of us are sick of not having sufficient shopping options in this town.
For the over 100,000 people in the greater Albemarle area, shopping sucks. Period.
Don’t tell me to shop at the downtown mall, either, it’s a joke as far as shopping goes.
Barracks Road has a limited selection of highly targeted shops that charge premium prices. Fashion Square Small is one of the smaller malls on the state. Our Wal-Mart isn’t even super, and regardless I think the service there sucks anyway.
So, again, how is it we do not need any more shopping in this area? Until there is some, many of us simply spend our money in Fredericksburg or Short Pump.
I love it when people tell me what I don’t need. Build it, and if no one shops there THEN we’ll know that "we" didn’t need it.
The ONLY solution to the traffic problems in the County is to provide alternate means of getting from point A to point B. Currently, Rt29 is the ONLY mechanism for getting from A to B in most cases, and THAT is why the traffic is so bad.
Building an overpass at Hydraulic is a stupid idea, and one that will do NOTHING for the overall traffic on Rt29.
We need a bypass, and we also need some additional roads to help provide several different paths to get from A to B. Anything else is a waste of time and money, and we may as well not even bother.
No, it’s not going to be pleasant – but who’s to blame? Don’t blame growth. Growth is inevitable regardless of what some liberals would have you think. We have "managed" our growth to be concentrated in a single area, and that area is ONLY accessable by Rt29 in the vast majority of cases.
Nearly all the shopping and a huge proportion of new reisdential development is on 29. Residents that live in new developments off 29 probably work on 29. Etc, etc. Rt29 is the hub of the county, like it or not. The hub is not the downtown mall!
It certainly does seem that the county has largely dragged their arses on this issue for a long time. Same with the water issues. They wait until it’s a problem, and then come up with stupid, feel good solutions that do little to actually fix the problem.
A bypass is just ONE PIECE of a total solution that no one is going to like. It’s a decade of poor planning that has gotten us into this mess – not the country’s growth rate.