Henrico set to connect Broad Street to Shady Grove/Pouncey Tract intersectionBy David Ress
Published: July 3, 2009
Henrico County has a route set and plans in hand for more than 80 percent of a new 1½-mile connection between West Broad Street and the intersection of Shady Grove and Pouncey Tract roads.
The project is meant to ease traffic at one of the busiest intersections in the metro area, and comes before the Board of Supervisors this month for consideration, capital projects coordinator Robert C. Tieman said.
If the board approves, work will start next month and should be finished by December 2011
The project would be the largest single road project, in dollar terms, in the county's history, costing a total of $48.4 million. It includes:
A new six-lane bridge over Interstate 64 -- designed with extra space for turn lanes in case the state and federal governments ever find the money for an interchange.
A relocation -- a new swooping curve and hill -- for a portion of Bacova Drive to make room for the bridge. "A whole lot of dirt is going to have to be moved," Tieman said.
A widening of a nearly three-quarter-mile stretch of Shady Grove Road, between Pouncey Tract Road and Twin Hickory Drive.
A new 8-inch sewer line to homes where the new construction would reduce drainage fields from septic tanks.
New water lines for people whose wells are affected by the construction, and to create a new connection between Shady Grove Road and West Broad Street, which should make delivery of water more reliable.
A 10-foot wide bike path and sidewalk along the new road.
The project would provide a third way out of the Twin Hickory and Wyndham neighborhoods for thousands of the subdivisions' residents, who are now pretty much limited to driving down Shady Grove to Pouncey Tract to reach West Broad Street, or down Nuckols Road to Interstate 295 and Innsbrook, Tieman said.
Traffic from those areas has made the intersection of Pouncey Tract and West Broad among the busiest in the area -- about 58,000 vehicles a day drive on West Broad through the intersection, while 11,000 a day move onto West Broad from Pouncey Tract. By reducing traffic coming to that intersection from the north, traffic tie-ups for people driving up Pump Road from the south to West Broad should ease, Tieman said.
The county supervisors approved a "design-build" contract for the project in 2007. By giving one team of engineers and road builders the work, the county was able to speed up the process. Normally, engineers bid to design the road and then when the plans are in hand, contractors vie for the work.
Work could start shortly after the Board of Supervisors considers the project at a public hearing scheduled for July 29.
"This is really fast for a road project," Tieman said.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/GAYT03_20090702-223003/277816/-----------------------------------
No idea how this is going to work, really, and I doubt an interchange with I-64 will ever come to fruition given the extension's proximity to the current I-64/I-295 interchange. VDOT would need to change quite a bit of signage on I-64, as well. The connector is definitely needed given how congested US 250 is in the Short Pump area, though, and if Henrico has found a way for it to work, then more power to them.
Granted, widening VA 271 to Nuckols Rd might have been easier and much less costly, but I doubt VDOT has the funds for it at the moment.