City staff overstates viability of an at-grade intersection for McIntire Road Extended project - Again

Here is a letter I received from Ms. Kathy Perdue, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager for the McIntire Road Extended project. The letter is from Ms. Angela Tucker, the city of Charlottesville's project manager, to Brent Sprinkel, the Virginia Department of Transportation's project manager and attempts to clarify the relationship between the McIntire Road Extended and the Route 250 Bypass Interchange at McIntire Road projects.

I believe this letter further confuses the relationship. City council has never approved construction of an at-grade intersection at Route 250 Bypass for the McIntire Road Extended project, and now Ms. Tucker states that "City Council will grant the necessary permission to complete the at-grade intersection" at McIntire Road. I find this a bit of an overstatement by Ms. Tucker and the idea of seeking federal permits on a hypothetical statement of this kind is clearly not defensible. The issue of no designated funding for an at-grade intersection is totally ignored, and these funds and necessary right-of-way needs are not readily available for this intersection.

City Council needs to state specifically what its intentions are concerning a possible at-grade intersection. Past statements by council appear to prohibit construction of an at-grade intersection have seen in simulation models that such an intersection fails to meet traffic demand at an acceptable level of service.

Now is the time for the true relationship between the McIntire Road Extended and Route 250 Bypass Interchange at McIntire Road projects to be stated - that these two projects are not independent of each other, but should be planned as a single facility that connects Route 250 Bypass to Melbourne Road.