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Culpeper County is taking steps to try and improve traffic on the portion of North James Madison Highway near the Carver Center in Rapidan. According to Paul Howard, Culpeper County’s director of Environmental Services, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors has directed his office to design improvements to the north and south entrances of the Carver Center, which also includes closing off its middle entrance. He said that these designs will be sent to the Virginia Department of Transportation for review and concurrence.
“The goal there is to improve the sight distance for people coming and going out of the site because that’s run with limitations right now,” he said. During the Dec. 3 board meeting, Stevensburg District Supervisor Susan Gugino asked for an update from Warrenton Regency Engineer Mark Nesbit on efforts to improve traffic near the agricultural research center.
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“We’re still getting some very major accidents, helicopter flights to hospitals,” she said. “Is there anything that is moving that road up, to be able to get more coordination with funding, to do something about left turn lanes, decel (deacceleration) lanes for that area?” The portion of the highway in front of the Carver Center has seen many accidents, many of which are due to poor visibility caused by a hill in the road located south of the school. Nesbit mentioned the most recent crash in November, which involved a tractor trailer and three passenger vehicles in a rear-end collision.
Another example was a three-vehicle crash involving a tractor trailer in February which resulted in minor injuries. The engineer confirmed that prior to the crash the county was looking at improving sight distance with potential slope work at the Carver Center. According to Howard, this would involve bank grading which would remove a hill near the center’s north entrance which impairs vision when traveling southbound.
According to the environmental director, available funding from those improvements would come from two sources. The first is available funding in the county budget totaling $270,000 and an extra $150,000 leftover from a completed roof project. Howard said that the county will soon advertise a bid for the work to see what the project would cost.
During the meeting, Nesbit also mentioned that there had been discussion about constructing a turn lane that would require the county to get right-of-way since it would cross into private property. According to Howard, the idea of a new left-hand turning lane would not be pursued because it would involve significant change and widening of the route, as well as the necessity of easements on private property. Howard said that the decision was made to focus improvements on the Carver Center since it is county property.
Gugino also asked about possibly installing radar speed signs in order to curb the speed of commuters driving on North James Madison. The Stevensburg supervisor asked if this was possible since commuters were “flying” on the highway at speeds of 65 to 70 mph; the current posted speed limit on the highway is 55 mph. Nesbit responded that the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office may have radar speed signs available and would have to coordinate with that entity to set them up.
Radar speed signs have been set up in other areas of the county; for example, a portion of Route 3 located in the Stevensburg district, which requested a speed of 45 mph. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!.
