Last night, Charlottesville City Council approved sending a letter to VDOT (and distribute it to other project stakeholders) clarifying councils position on a possible at-grade intersection of McIntire Road Extended and the Route 250 Bypass. The letter was presented to council as given below and passed without amendment. Below is the text of the letter as presented.
I am eager to hear how this clarification may impact the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers consideration of the permit requested by VDOT that considers the at-grade intersection as part of the McIntire Road Extended project. Without the at-grade intersection, VDOT may have to resubmit the permit request with the Route 250 Bypass Interchange at McIntire Road as the southern terminus of the project. Independence of the McIntire Road Extended project without the interchange is clearly difficult to defend.
Check back for future developments.
January 4, 2010
Mr. Brent Sprinkel, PE
Virginia Department of Transportation
1401 Orange Street
Culpeper, Virginia
RE: City Letter of 11/23/09 re: Meadow Creek Parkway (McIntire Road Extended)
Dear Mr. Sprinkel:
This letter is written on behalf of the City Council of the City of Charlottesville to clarify a statement in the letter written on November 23, 2009 to you by Ms. Angela Tucker. On page 2 of that letter, Ms. Tucker states:
“If the City elects not to move forward with the Interchange project, City Council will grant the necessary permission to complete the at-grade intersection as designed under the McIntire Road Extended project.”
To clarify, the official position of the City of Charlottesville, as stated in a letter of 1/18/06 to VDOT (attached) is to only build the McIntire Road Extended with a grade separated interchange.
“Council has engaged a firm for engineering services for the design of this project and thanks VDOT, the County Board of Supervisors, and especially Senator Warner for their efforts to secure funding for the interchange. We remain committed to this project as a necessary improvement to both the U. S. 250 Bypass and the proposed Meadow Creek Parkway.”
This position was further emphasized in the 10/1/07 Resolution of the Council (attached) which granted the temporary construction easement for the McIntire Road Extended. Condition (3) states:
“Written confirmation from the Virginia Department of Transportation that this temporary construction easement will not be used to construct an at-grade intersection at the intersection of U. S. Route 250 Bypass and McIntire Road Extended.”
In summary, City Council has taken the official position that the Council support for the McIntire Road Extended is specifically based on the construction of a grade separated interchange at the U. S. 250 Bypass. Council has taken no position on an at-grade intersection.
I hope this clarifies the official City position. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Dave Norris
Mayor
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment