The long and winding road

The long and winding road

A meeting on the update of Goochland County’s major thoroughfare plan (MTP) filled the board meeting room on March 27. Attendees included developers, land owners, and mostly  citizens concerned about burgeoning congestion, especially in the county’s northeast.

Letters circulated implying that the county would use its power of eminent domain to obtain rights of way along the south end of Hockett Road to widen it to four lanes after the approval of a rezoning application to build approximately 500 homes was granted on March 6. Improvements to Hockett Road were never part of the Mosaic rezoning application.

Some of the citizens were angry, most, at best, confused. Todd Kilduff, Deputy County Administrator for Community Development and Public Utilities explained that the purpose of the session was to present in formation about the MTP and gather citizen input on the work so far. Kilduff made it clear that the MTP contains no specifics about precise location of possible road improvement;  a timeline for construction; or any guarantee that a  conceptual road will be built. No decisions about any items in the MTP have been made.

The goal of the MTP is to ensure that roads are able to handle expected growth. It is also a “living” document that will be revised as conditions on the ground change.

Carl Tweksbury, an engineer with the consulting firm of Kimley Horn, which was retained by the county to update the MTP, discussed some of the “modeling”  used to craft the plan. Kilduff said that Kimley Horn are the “numbers” people and they need to hear about real world conditions from those who travel the roads.

Long term road improvements listed for Goochland include four laning Rt. 250 throughout the county, bicycle lanes, and better walkability in some areas.

County administrator John Budesky said that this plan is very long term and the road improvements mentioned might not happen for 20 or more years. He said that the county’s 2035 comprehensive land use plan (http://www.goochlandva.us/250/2035-Comprehensive-Plan) shows that 85 percent of the county will remain rural. The other 15 percent, however, mostly in the east end, is targeted for growth and development.

Citizens asked for a recap of the data used to craft the MTP in a form that any person can understand.

Goochland is growing. At certain times of the day, many of our roads are at capacity. Spillover from Short Pump that floods roads in the east end, especially the poorly designed Board Street Road/Rt. 288 interchange, which is the most dangerous intersection in the county, according to Sheriff James L. Agnew, makes things worse and is beyond our power to control.

Improvements to this intersection, which are fully funded, will not be built before 2021.

Immediate attention is  on the Hockett Road corridor. Its level or service, an  indication that traffic flows freely, is already in the failing range due to works in West Creek avoiding congested ramps on Rt. 288. In addition to Mosaic, Readers Branch, another large subdivision roughly opposite The Parke at Centerville, is seeking approval. This would make things even worse on Hockett Road at rush hour. Improvements to fix this include a right turn lane at  Hockett and Broad, which would consume most of the  parking lot of a successful business there.

Dan Zodun of Centerville suggests that building right turn lanes at  the north and south ends of Hockett Road would reduce rush hour congestion without  widening the entire road.

A second community meeting on the MTP will be held in the next few months, hopefully incorporating  citizen feedback. The supervisors plan a work session in early June after which the MTP will be referred to the Planning Commission and back to the supervisors for another public hearing and final adoption in August.

The widening of Rt. 250 between Ashland and Manakin Roads took a long time for a short, straight stretch of road on flat ground. The poor initial design of the turn lane onto southbound Manakin Road, which often trapped large trucks like moving vans and horse trailers trying to negotiate the corner, does little to inspire confidence that future projects, which will be built by VODT—the state agency whose motto is “Oops!”—will fare any better.

A pending roundabout and extension of Fairground Road to connect with Route 6 west of Courthouse Village is on the approved list, but will not happen before 2021. Even adding traffic signals to congested intersections is a long, complicated, and expensive process.