By Uriah Kiser
STAFFORD, Va. — A road that carries commuters and thousands of school children is about to get an improvement.
Stafford County transportation officials Thursday held a public meeting about improvements to Mountain View Road. Last night, officials showed plans for improving about a half-mile stretch of the two lane road between Rose Hill Farm Drive and Pickett Lane. It’s the second section of a two-phase project aimed at modernizing the road, a thoroughfare which carries students to Margaret Brent Elementary and Mountain View High schools.
“This project was born out of our Youth Driver Taskforce, which identified potentially dangerous roads in the county that needed to be fixed,” said Stafford County Public Works Director Mike Smith.
During a public hearing last year held for the first phase of the project – a $7.6 million, 1.4 mile stretch of Mountain View Road west of Rose Hill Farm Drive — residents told transportation planners they also wanted to improve the portion of the road closest to the schools.
The road will still be two lanes when complete, but both phases will have 12-foot wide lanes and, for the first time, the road will have an eight-foot wide shoulder along one side of the road. It’s an improvement to a street that in many places has sharp curves and poor sight distance, a factor that has lead to many crashes on this road over the years, said Smith.
Planners said 3,400 cars per day traveled Mountain View Road in 2010, and the number is expected to increase to more than 5,300 by 2032.
Construction of the first phase of the project is scheduled to begin next spring. Public comments about the project will be accepted at [email protected] until March 26.
