Jefferson Road in South Charleston would be widened to four traffic lanes plus a turning lane and use an overpass to cross over Kanawha Turnpike, a set of CSX railroad tracks and Davis Creek to relieve traffic congestion and improve safety, under a plan unveiled Monday by the state Department of Transportation.
More than 100 people crowded into a conference room at the South Charleston Recreation Center to view displays outlining the project, get detailed explanations from DOT officials and have their comments on the planned $56.2 million highway improvement made part of the public record.
"We're thrilled to see that an overpass is part of the preferred alternative," said Bob Anderson, executive director of the South Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It will take care of backed-up traffic and address a lot of our problems with accessing businesses along that section of road."
A second option considered by DOT planners included widening Jefferson Road, but building a single four-way, ground-level intersection with Kanawha Turnpike and maintaining a surface crossing of the CSX tracks, instead of using an overpass to avoid them. That plan shaved nearly $12 million off the cost of the preferred alternative.
Currently, Jefferson Road traffic is bottlenecked through a short dogleg along Kanawha Turnpike that requires passing through two stoplights before continuing on to either MacCorkle Avenue to the north or U.S. 119/Corridor G to the south. During the morning commute, traffic is often backed up 2,000 feet, according to the DOT. A 2014 traffic survey showed that an average of 21,800 drivers travel the 1.7-mile road each day.
While the preferred route does more to relieve traffic congestion and enhance safety by avoiding the busy intersection and railroad tracks, it also requires nine more residential relocations than the second build-out option considered by DOT planners, since the preferred route shifts Jefferson Road to the east, overlapping a portion of the Jefferson Place neighborhood to accommodate the overpass.
A total of 35 home and apartment relocations and one small office building are needed to build the preferred route.
The route favored by DOT planners would include an intersection in front of the South Charleston Community Center, and would have a roundabout interchange allowing drivers to access Kanawha Turnpike.
Proposed new connections off Jefferson Road to Dudley Farms Plaza or a planned new shopping center that would adjoin it are not part of the Jefferson Road improvements now under study by the DOT.
"We need to get this done first before we get involved in providing more access to the mall," said DOT spokeswoman Carrie Jones. Funding for the Jefferson Road project is included in the DOT's six-year construction plan, she said.
The Jefferson Road project area currently has a motor vehicle crash rate that is four times higher than the state average for similar roads, according to the DOT.
If all goes according to plan, an environmental impact statement for the project will be approved this fall, followed by the start of right-of-way acquisitions in the winter of 2017, the start of construction in the winter of 2018 and the completion of construction in the fall of 2020.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.