Engineers who may have left July 27’s 250 Bypass Interchange Steering Committee meeting feeling optimistic were in for a brutal dose of reality on August 7, when City Council got a look-see at the intersection’s five potential design alternatives.
“It’s an awful lot coming awful fast,” Council member Kevin Lynch said. “Maybe we are pushing you faster than we need to.”
After a detailed presentation by RK&K’s Owen Peery, Lynch commended the group. “You’ve generated a tremendous amount of product,” he said. The Baltimore-based engineers started working on the beleaguered project in January of this year.
The slide show stressed the size of the designs for the McIntire-250 intersection that could be crucial to the controversial Meadowcreek Parkway project, contrasting them with larger traffic patterns in areas like Barracks Road.
But it was not enough to mollify City Council. “All of these interchange options are larger than they need to be,” said Lynch. RK&K’s Bill Hellman said the size of the geometric design is necessary to meet federal funding requirements.
Lynch suggested that one of the connectors be modified to handle more traffic. “You have to change the size of your pipes, because it’s just like water,” Lynch said. “It’s going to follow the path of least resistance. If you put a big fat pipe through the city, and a little thin pipe going around it, then any model’s going to go through the city.”
As Lynch doggedly continued to press various concerns, and the clock struck 11pm, Peery and his RK&K mates struggled to muster adequate responses. Even Mayor David Brown seemed worn down. “All right, I don’t know if we’re going to resolve this at the moment,” Brown said wearily, seeking an end to the discussion. “I don’t know if there’s an answer here.” Many Parkway opponents would undoubtably agree.
Related stories
Neighborhood remodel?
Twenty-three years ago this week, Albemarle Supervisors officially adopted a policy called the Neighborhood Model to encourage construction of a more urban fabric in the county’s designated growth areas. “We were proud of the tremendous efforts put into developing the Neighborhood Model by a committee of local residents and staff,” says Sally Thomas, who […]
Path for improvement
With the missing medians, peeled-up pavement, and barrage of cones, it’s hard to miss the construction on Hydraulic Road and U.S. 29. But Virginia Department of Transportation Project Manager Will Stowe says there’s a method to the madness. Construction along the busy corridor started earlier this year and has mostly consisted of right-of-way acquisitions up […]
In brief
In other words While UVA leadership has continued to stress its willingness to engage with students over the ongoing conflict in Gaza, one such conversation did not proceed as planned on Thursday, May 9, when members of Apartheid Divest—a coalition of 43 student groups—walked out on a pre-scheduled meeting with UVA President Jim Ryan. More […]
