Charlottesville City Council approved $8.6 million in funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation. The money comes from VDOT’s SMART SCALE program, which exists to offer select tax dollars in the types of projects that meet the most immediate transportation needs in Virginia.
Projects selected include transportation improvements that contribute to solving a need acknowledged in the statewide multimodal long-range transportation plan, VTrans. Five factors are considered in the evaluation process for all projects: Safety, Congestion Mitigation, Accessibility, Environmental Quality, and Economic Development. The Barracks-Emmet intersection improvements will decrease the volume of cars sitting at the traffic light in half, provide safety for pedestrians and cyclists, improve accessibility to recent development projects, and support the economic development and growth along the corridor.
For more information on VDOT’s SMART SCALE program, visit their website: http://vasmartscale.org/