The Board of Supervisors is urging the Virginia Department of Transportation to include a pedestrian path underneath a new bridge built to carry Interstate 95 traffic over Route 17.
Why it matters: A pedestrian path would allow people who live across the six-lane Route 17 to walk from their neighborhood in Olde Forge across the road to a shopping center anchored by a Target Store.
- Supervisors say that’s where many of them can’t afford a car shop, as well as work.
A major project to expand the intersection that includes three new bridges and new southbound lanes on I-95, doesn’t include the pedestrian improvements.
- 10 pedestrians have been struck in the area in the past two years, according to a county report.
- Five crashes in the area since May 2019 have involved pedestrians, too.
Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton, who serves on the FAMPO Board, says VDOT should uphold its own design standards that state new or improved roads should have pedestrian paths.
- “We didn’t write that rule, VDOT did,” said Shelton.
Following the unanimous vote by the Stafford Board of Supervisors today, the county’s letter will be sent to Virginia Transportation Secretary Shannon Valentine.
Photo: A view of I-95 at Route 17 looking north. A proposed pedestrian path would run east to west along Route 17 under a bridge in the center of the photo.
