Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Streets topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Petersburg to pursue South Crater Road signal upgrades, temporary crash mitigations and stepped-up right-of-way cleanup
Summary
City staff described short-term measures and a corridor plan for South Crater Road signal timing and intersection changes, and council raised long-standing concerns about roadside trash and illegal signs.
City engineers and staff told the Petersburg City Council at its March 4 work session that the city is pursuing short-term measures to address crash-prone movements along South Crater Road while planning corridor-scale signal and intersection improvements that will be coordinated with an upcoming VDOT project.
Bridal Coppell, identified in the meeting as city engineer, described work the city is pursuing including retiming signals, replacing backplates, and installing interim barriers (bollards) at some medians to prohibit hazardous left turns. Coppell said retiming or changing a signal to operate on vehicle actuation ‘‘will affect the timing along the entire corridor’’ and that consultants and on-call contractors are examining timing and median changes. She said some temporary measures could be in place by April for council inspection.
Council members raised multiple safety and traffic concerns. Councilman McGovern asked whether the Wyndham intersection could be changed to reduce unnecessary green time for cross traffic; Coppell said a new timing plan would be needed for the entire corridor. Council members and the mayor also flagged heavy new traffic near the Novo Nordisk pharmaceutical campus and a casino, and staff said the casino is required to perform a traffic impact analysis; the city will review that analysis and may use it to inform corridor projects.
On a separate but related operational topic, Vice Mayor Hill and other council members pressed staff about persistent trash and unauthorized signs in rights of way. Staff said departments are coordinating removal and that zoning personnel had recently collected stacks of illegally placed signs. The city manager said the budget process will consider adding personnel or contracts to increase cleaning capacity, while staff said crews already remove debris when identified but the volume has increased with new development.
Why it matters: Council members expressed urgency. The staff presentation tied short-term intersection fixes to a larger VDOT-funded South Crater Road signal improvement project that staff expects to put to bid within roughly 60 days; the VDOT project and the city’s timing plan are expected to influence corridor-wide coordination.
Staff said they will bring visual updates and interim measures for Council review at the April meeting and will continue working with consultants and VDOT on the corridor improvement plan.
