On Monday evening, several dozen residents got a sneak peak at the Graves Mill Road of the future, which could include improvements such as new turning lanes, expanded ramps, a roundabout or even a newly designed highway interchange called a “diverging diamond.”
After local transportation officials from both Lynchburg and Bedford County identified issues with traffic volume and crash rates in the area, Region 2000’s Local Government Council and the Central Virginia Metropolitan Planning Organization began a process to study the stretch of Graves Mill Road between Gristmill Road in Bedford County and McConville Road in Lynchburg.
The study began last summer and is set to conclude later this spring.
After analyzing volume, traffic patterns and other issues, engineers have prepared a variety of projects that could improve capacity and safety. Listed in an order from lowest cost to highest cost, the study has identified options that can be implemented from now to 2045 and beyond.
Feedback from Monday’s meeting will help finalize the study before it will go before the Lynchburg Planning Commission this year and then City Council to be adopted, which would put the recommendations into the city’s official Comprehensive Plan. If the recommendations are adopted, this does not mean the study’s ideas automatically will be implemented — instead, they will become options the city or Bedford County can pursue if they choose.
According to Region 2000 Transportation Planning Director Scott Smith, the study process is helpful to learn what residents are experiencing while driving in the area as well as to cater the results to their desires as much as possible.
“The initial work that was done in the fall was the engineers doing their research and gathering input from the public because sometimes, the data does not match what the public experiences or what their opinions are,” Smith said. “Then they took all of that back and came up with recommendations for how to alleviate some of the issues on the corridor.”
One of the low-cost projects would be to widen Graves Mill Road from Creekside Drive to the Lynchburg Expressway in order to add a second right-hand turning lane onto the expressway. This also would include widening the on-ramp to two lanes at the beginning, before traffic would merge back down to a single lane to enter the expressway.
Another less costly recommendation in the study would be to add a left turn lane from Graves Mill Road onto Gristmill Road as well as another right turn lane from Gristmill onto Graves Mill Road.
“This is adding the laneage that really should be there already to accommodate this traffic,” said Bill Wuensch, principal transportation engineer and planner for EPR, the Charlottesville-based engineering company assisting with the study.
A large, high-cost way to address safety and congestion in the area would be the installation of a diverging diamond interchange, which would change the traffic pattern radically and remove left turns that cross traffic. According to Wuensch, these intersections are a new design that are more inexpensive to install that older-style interchanges and have been proven to reduce collisions.
“They’re considered innovative intersections, and they are being deployed all around the country, including in Virginia,” he said.
The new interchange would involve traffic switching sides of the road in between the two entrance and exit points onto the expressway, which would prevent traffic turning left onto the expressway from having to wait for a break in oncoming traffic to make the turn. Reducing the times cars have to turn across traffic, planners say, would decrease crashes in the area and quicken traffic flow. Although the intersection appears confusing, Wuensch said it would have many signs directing traffic through the unconventional stretch of road.
Because of the need for funding to complete the diverging diamond interchange, he does not anticipate this would be completed for another decade at least if officials chose to implement the project. Wuensch said the two bridges on Graves Mill Road crossing over the expressway are due for replacement in 10 years, so that would be a “great opportunity” for the project to be implemented.
Other projects the study suggests are the construction of a roundabout in place of the four-way stop at Graves Mill and McConville roads, an additional right turn lane from Creekside Drive onto Graves Mill Road and a right turn lane from Graves Mill Road onto Millrace Drive.
Another recommendation includes reconfiguring the intersection of Graves Mill Road and Millside Drive to add new right-hand turning lanes on both sides of Millside onto Graves Mill as well as new left turn lanes into both sides of Millside from Graves Mill. However, the intersection also would prevent left turns from Millside onto Graves Mill to prevent the possibility of crashes.
According to Wuensch, drivers trying to turn left instead would have to make a right-hand turn and do a U-turn, which would reduce crashes from cars turning across traffic at the intersection. There is not enough traffic at the intersection to warrant a traffic signal, he said.
Margaret Carmel covers the city of Lynchburg for The News & Advance. Reach her at (434) 385-5524.