Little things matter.
With so much development set to come along 240, celebrating progress is a good thing.
A quick search yields years of stories about these seemingly small pedestrian enhancements.
Route 240 at Music City Today and Starr Hill Brewery | Pedestrian Crossing | Field investigation complete; Plans have been finalized, estimated cost approximately $153k — seriously, why has this taken so long? It’s not that hard.
2018 the Crozet Gazette wrote:
Route 240 (Starr Hill Sidewalk Project): Pedestrian improvements to include four lengths of sidewalk along the frontage of Starr Hill and Music Today as well as across the street, plus one new crosswalk and the improvement of an existing crosswalk. Design work is complete and construction should be done within the year. This is a $200,000 project funded through VDOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).
Wait a minute. The project went *down* in cost?
I emailed Kevin McDermott with Albemarle County; he responded quickly and thoroughly.
The project includes two pedestrian crossings. One between the Music Today parking and Music Today offices and the second between the Starr Hill entrance and the Music Today Warehouse. They will both have those Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons similar to the one on 250 near the Harris Teeter.
The project has approved designs and funding and the only thing waiting is for it to be worked into the construction schedule but it is expected to be completed by the end of January.
The cost went down for the project because they reduced the scope of the project. Initially they had been including significant work on the Starr Hill side that would include sidewalk receiving areas and stormwater improvements. Ultimately they removed those because it wasn’t within the budget. I do not know for sure the final budget. This is a VDOT administered project so the County isn’t involved in the delivery of it. The VDOT website shows it as a $361k project.
Definitely overkill. I am sure those sidewalks will be worn out very quickly. The money could have been spent far more wisely…