The Commonwealth Transportation Board has allocated $230M to build the Western Bypass, according to a press release from the governor’s office. That’s $197M in funding for the new road, and another $33M to add another lane to 29 in both directions between Polo Grounds Road (near Walmart) and Hollymead, to accomodate the proposed interchange there.
This is basically up to the Metropolitan Planning Organization now, who has held one of two planned public hearings on the topic. There was overwhelming opposition at last week’s hearing, though it’ll all come down to guy who wields the tie-breaking vote on the MPO: James Utterback, the administrator of VDOT’s Culpeper District (which we’re in.) The city has two representatives on the MPO who are likely to vote against the bypass bypass, the county has two votes likely to vote for it, and that makes Utterback a pretty important guy all of a sudden.
Ummmm….. I think the county reps are likely to vote FOR it….(Freudian slip or wishful thinking, Waldo?)
Things are finally beginning to shape up so we can this Bypass built!
This is 2011. How can ANYONE believe that a plan drawn up over 20 years ago can possibly fit the Charlottesville of today? Do YOU still fit into your wedding dress ladies and do the guys still fit into their high school clothes? I doubt very seriously if that is possible. Charlottesville AND Albemarle have grown tremendously in the past 20 years. This is now one of the best places in the country to retire. Check it out on the web!!. A BYPASS? Yes, we need one, but we need one that fits for EVERYONE, not just a handful of greedy politicians who want the “glory” that goes with pushing a size six shoe onto a size 10 foot. Let’s use the brains God gave us!!
OK, Richard, please describe what route your bypass would take – and if you can do for equal or lower cost than the current one, and in less than 20 years? (Be sure to figure in condemnation proceedings, environmental studies and lawsuits….)
:) Between the two, I suspect it’d be a Freudian slip, but the reality is that I had just a few minutes for a break at work, and I typed it up pretty quick. I restructured the sentence, and apparently neglected to read it.
So, for the record, I had written “[t]he city has two representatives on the MPO who are likely to vote against the bypass bypass, the county has two votes likely to against for it,” and I changed that to “[t]he city has two representatives on the MPO who are likely to vote against the bypass bypass, the county has two votes likely to vote for it.”
For more details, check out the article I just posted at Charlottesville Tomorrow. It includes a 75-minute podcast of the workshop. On Friday, we’ll post a story of the next steps involved.
Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Did the Commonwealth of Virginia put on a jacket they hadn’t worn since last season and discover $230,000,000 in the pocket that they’d forgotten they’d put there?
The backroom deal-making with one local official, the sudden change of policy without public notice or discussion, and the sudden surprise ability to fund this dinosaur of a project are very disturbing to me.
Now hear this: the VDOT boys would close Ashwood Boulevard access to US29 per recent memos just now dug up. how stupid can this get? brought to you by Boyd&co.
I was wondering what they’d do with Ashwood once I saw this rendering. Unless that exit ramp is really, really steep, I’d have to assume that somebody in an SUV might get a haircut just by driving under it. Even if Ashwood remains open, I have to imagine the neighborhood is going to feel a might bit different with an overpass whizzing overhead.
Rodney Thomas, on the radio with Coy Barefoot, explained that he had and “understanding” or two about this interchange.
http://www.wina.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5392480
Around 5:58