(Danville) — Local planners are asking for state money to pay for a couple of major area road projects.
The Danville Metropolitan Planning Organization Tuesday approved an updated Smart Scale application. That’s the program state transportation officials now use to fund major roadwork.
The first project targets the Franklin Turnpike corridor from the city limits to Twin Springs Elementary School. The proposal being sent to Richmond calls for a median strip be installed from just north of Hunting Hills Road to just south of Swanson Avenue.
It would also add an oval roundabout with crosswalks at the Mount Hermon Circle and Oak Forest Circle intersections. The improvements also include a single lane roundabout with crosswalks installed at Ridgecrest Drive. Another safety feature would be a northbound right turn lane at Mount Hermon Circle, along with right turn tapers at Hunting Hills Road, Mount Hermon Circle south, and at Jeanette Drive.
The second part of the Route 41 proposal calls for a traffic signal with pedestrian signals and crosswalks at the intersection with Orphanage Road near the Danville city limits. Planners also want a southbound right turn lane, an eastbound left turn lane, and a westbound left turn lane to govern the traffic along that stretch of Franklin Turnpike.
The other Smart Scale project approved by the MPO is the Route 311 connector road serving the Berry Hill Mega Park.
This will widen 2.3 miles of Berry Hill Road from a two-lane undivided highway to a four-lane divided road. The improvements will run from the intersection of the new connector road that’s under construction, southward to Oak Hill Road.
The MPO says the project is needed to accommodate the extra traffic that will be generated once the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill lands a major client. Area economic developers say the connector road will improve mobility, and safety on Route 58 and will reduce travel times for employees and vendors who will need access to the Megasite.
Those two projects will go through a pre-application screening process. Once submitted into the system, the applications go through VDOT’s Smart Scale scoring process. Those with the highest scores are sent to the Commonwealth Transportation Board for final consideration.
Smart Scale was implemented by the Virginia Department of Transportation in 2017 to fund transportation projects. Each proposal is scored on five main factors. Each part of Virginia utilizes a different scoring system.
In Pittsylvania County, projects that address safety are scored at 40%. Economic development projects score 30%. Other categories like congestion mitigation, accessibility and environmental quality are scored at 10% each.