The City of Williamsburg is hoping state money will fund a project to reconfigure a portion of Ironbound Road near its intersection with Richmond Road.
City Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday that allows city staff to submit an application to the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Revenue Sharing program to fund the first phase of the Ironbound Road project.
In a memo sent to the council, City Manager Jack Tuttle said the Ironbound project should be pursued because it is the most “shovel-ready” of three proposed projects in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan. The other two are a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Bypass Road and Capitol Landing Road, and the widening of Monticello Avenue.
In Phase I of the two-phase plan, the intersection of Longhill Road will be shifted west by 100 feet to separate it from Richmond Road, and a traffic signal would be installed. The project would also add turn lanes, an entrance into vacant property near the corner of that intersection and bicycle accommodations, as well as replace above-ground wiring with underground wiring.
The preliminary cost of the project is estimated at $2,876,000, with $528,000 coming from the city’s Urban Allocation fund. The remaining $2,348,000 would be equally divided between local dollars and state matching funds if VDOT chooses the project.
City Engineer Aaron Small said the application process was competitive, but the city had a good chance of receiving funding. Small said the state had approved $180 million in Revenue Sharing funds for projects last year, and had increased that appropriation each year for the last several years.
If the state did not award funds to the city this year, Small said it would delay when the project could be undertaken. The city plans to apply again next year if it is not chosen in this round.
The city has received state revenue sharing funds in the past, including maintenance paving scheduled to begin in spring 2015.
City Council first reviewed a proposal to reconfigure Ironbound Road in February 2008. Small said the original proposal was drafted in anticipation of increased traffic due to the mixed-use development at High Street.
While traffic from High Street has not matched the projections, Small said the potential reuse of the James Blair office complex as an operational middle school and the redevelopment of the Governor Spottswood property — a former hotel near the intersection of Richmond and Ironbound roads that has already been demolished — increased the urgency of the project.
Vice Mayor Paul Freiling asked if the city was getting ahead of itself by presuming the status of James Blair would change any time soon. The Williamsburg-James City County School Board has recommended a plan to redevelop the site as a fourth middle school, but the James City County Board of Supervisors has not approved funding for the project.
City Manager Jack Tuttle said regardless of the middle school decision, the city had other reasons to pursue the project.
“Whatever the decision that’s made, ultimately, with the use of the Blair campus, Longhill Road needs to be realigned further to the west, both to increase the separation from Richmond Road … and also, importantly, to intersect with the property directly to the south and allow its redevelopment,” Tuttle said. “Regardless of how soon something happens at Blair, this is a needed project.”
Phase II of the project would allow for more widening of the road for the addition of turn lanes.
In addition to the revenue matching funds for Ironbound Road construction, the city is requesting $500,000 in matching funds from the state for street maintenance. Small said the city traditionally allocated $500,000 of local funds for resurfacing, but the increased cost of asphalt forced it to look for alternative funding sources.
Small said the city would use the matching funds to resurface 4.21 miles of roadway out of the city’s 51.2 miles of streets, or about 8.2 percent of all city streets.
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