VDOT nixes eastern bypass from U.S. 29 corridor plan

After drawing ire from area residents and elected officials, a proposed road that would have linked southern Culpeper to Interstate 64 in eastern Albemarle County is no longer being recommended as part of a $1.5 million study of the U.S. 29 corridor.

The so-called eastern bypass would have diverted traffic on U.S. 29 by traveling in the vicinity of U.S. 15 south to Keswick. Plans called for it to circumvent the towns of Orange and Gordonsville and pass east of Charlottesville.

The findings of the U.S. 29 study will be presented to the Commonwealth Transportation Board next month.

“We were putting it out there really as an idea,” said project manager Joseph Springer, whose consulting group developed the project, adding that the decision to remove the road was made last week.

Lou Hatter, public affairs manager for VDOT’s Culpeper District, said the study is strictly a concept for a planning corridor, not a specific project.

No price tag had been listed for the project, but many in the greater Charlottesville area were surprised that such a road was drawn in the first place. Several residents criticized the proposal because it would have gone through an area of Albemarle County that is home to the Southwest Mountains Historic District, and much of the land is under conservation easement.

“It was a big surprise to all of us,” said Kenneth C. Boyd, a member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, whose Rivanna District was where the road was shown. “I don’t think anything like that should be in there.”

Charles Rasnick, VDOT’s project manager for the U.S. 29 corridor plan, said the recommendation was also eliminated so that the study team could instead focus on U.S. 29 itself.
“We’re concentrating more on management of the existing facility,” he said. But, he added, “There’s very little support, if any, through Albemarle County.”

The county board at its last meeting passed a resolution that, among other things, opposed the route. Rasnick said the Orange County Board of Supervisors issued a similar statement.
“We got a lot of public input,” he said.