The proposed 29-page Transportation Chapter update to the county’s Comprehensive Plan contains a broad range of recommendations on how the county should deal with roads and travelers of all sorts— from the I-81 corridor to the Rural Rustic Road program VDOT offers.

In between are recommendations and strategies of what might be done to deal with issues on the county’s three federal primary roads, making secondary roads safer, adding bicycle lanes or shoulders during repaving projects, improving park and ride opportunities and even adding Valley Metro public bus service to parts of southern Botetourt.

The Board of Supervisors is holding a public hearing on the proposed update to the county’s Comprehensive Plan at 10:30 a.m. Friday at Greenfield Education and Training Center. The draft update got the endorsement of the Planning Commission when it met last week.

The plan update also looks at road funding opportunities— a tough subject for the supervisors as the county navigates the new SmartScale road funding criteria and what have generally been stagnant VDOT district resources.

The update also takes into account the Comprehensive Plan’s already approved new section on Urban Development Areas (UDA) that identify the new Gateway Crossing area around Exit 150 and Daleville Town Center as UDAs.

Among the strategies recommended in the proposed update is one that says the county should continue to seek and support projects that maintain and preserve traffic flow or improve safety on Corridors of Statewide Significance that are identified in VTrans2040.

One of those projects is the section of southbound I-81 between mile markers 167.4 and 169.5 where safety improvements are needed in an area known to be prone to regular incidents causing delays and serious injuries.

Other I-81 projects that should get attention include:

• The section between Exits 146 and 150 has poor acceleration/deceleration lanes near the truck weigh station with significant freight ton-hours of delay
• Ability of US 11 to serve as a parallel highway facility limited by speed and capacity
• Park and Ride lots in Botetourt County have higher utilization rates than the statewide average

Issues on US 220 include:

• Congestion issues at U.S. 220/I-81 and U.S. 220-Alt/US 220 junction north of Roanoke
• U.S. 220-Alt between Glebe Rd and Autumnwood Lane north of Roanoke: 13 severe crashes

Major Planned and Future Projects

• Reconstruction with added lanes from just south of Route 43 to about a half-mile north of Route 696 to include roadway striping, raised pavement markers, regrading existing shoulders, upgrading or installing guard rail, replacing narrow bridges, and turn lane improvement
• Widen US 220 from two to four lanes just south of Route 722
• Access management project for US 220 and US 220 Alternate near I-81 Exit 150

The draft update also recommends the county continue to implement recommendations for future pedestrian, bicycle and transit projects as identified in regional transportation plans and studies, including the Roanoke Valley Transit Vision Plan that contains recommendations for improving and expanding the Roanoke Valley’s current transit system, operated by Valley Metro.

Currently, this system does not serve Botetourt; however, there are three types of recommendations made within the Transit Vision Plan that bring Botetourt into the system.

A short-term goal recommended to be implemented within the next six years is to add a peak route running from Bonsack to Downtown Roanoke.

Medium-term recommendations between 2022 and 2030 proposed two routes in Botetourt, one connection between Daleville, Bonsack and Downtown Roanoke that would be a regularly run route Monday through Saturday every hour with additional service, and a peak service which would provide connectivity between Daleville and Downtown Roanoke via Plantation Road, bypassing Bonsack.

There are two long-term recommendations, a new route connecting Troutville, Hollins the Veterans Hospital and the LewisGale Medical Center, and a more consistent connection between Daleville and Downtown Roanoke via Plantation Road

Another strategy that will have an impact on development is to strengthen coordination of transportation, land use and development decisions to reduce the number and length of vehicle trips, increase public transit and non-motorized trips in areas of desired future growth, such as UDAs and established Multimodal Centers (bus routes) and districts.

The plan also recognizes the challenges associated with the county’s many miles of secondary roads. One objective is to continue to provide safe and effective transportation options on rural roads, while preserving rural character.

To do that, the plan recommends to continue to focus on safety improvements such as rural traffic calming techniques to reduce speeding.

Another is to continue to pursue Rural Rustic Roads Program for qualified roads that have been designated to be paved.

The draft update has an objective to incorporate available local, state, and federal funding opportunities to provide sufficient financing for transportation improvements and programs.

Meeting that objective includes evaluating the different ways available to Virginia localities for the funding of road improvement projects

The plan notes that The Virginia Tech Center for Transportation Innovation & Research conducted a study on local government financing of roads in 2014, and several Virginia localities have used local funding and financing sources to build new roads and complete major street improvements projects when state/federal funding were not available.

The plan update says the study provides an overview of local transportation funding opportunities and presents a variety of case studies and approaches.

The update looks at four of those potential funding opportunities:

• Commercial developer proffers (cash and construction of improvements) have been used by other localities and are sometimes coupled with VDOT revenue sharing funds to double the value of proffers.
• By state law, a certain percentage of room and meals tax revenues must go back to tourism-related expenditures. Some of these expenditures could be for transportation related infrastructure, particularly sidewalks and trails.
• Economic Development Authorities (EDAs) often act as a liaison between the local government and prospective business. EDAs are more of a financing tool than a funding source. They have borrowing authority that does not count against the debt limit of the local government.
• Establishing local transportation districts (includes service districts and/or tax districts) can be used to recoup roadway project costs. They are commonly used to collect additional taxes from a specific geographic area in order to finance transportation improvements that benefit the area.

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