Dan River Region to update long-range transportation plan

The Danville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization held its first of three meetings for the public to learn about — and provide feedback on — updating the group’s long-range transportation plan.

A handful of local transportation officials were available to answer questions as about 20 members of the public filtered in and inspected maps and studies of the current long-range plan, which was established in 2005 and runs through 2030.

“In the planning, you don’t get quite the huge crowds,” said Robert Dowd, executive director of the West Piedmont Planning District Commission. “Whereas with your construction stages, you’re in the design stage and you’re talking about affecting homes, then you’ve got a whole lot more attendance.”

Two local road projects are headed to construction — the Robertson Bridge replacement and the Franklin Turnpike Connector from North Main Street to U.S. 29.

Future local projects could include an extension of the Danville Expressway to Chatham and upgrading U.S. 29 to interstate-highway standards down to Greensboro, N.C. That project is not a priority and is wholly dependent on available funds, said Bill Cashman of URS Corporation, consultant to the Danville-Pittsylvania MPO.

“When we’re updating the plan, we’re showing the existing plan and giving information about current road counts, where are accidents occurring,” said Jeffrey Kessler, the VDOT district planning manager for Lynchburg. “We’re looking for validation — are these things correct? What intersections are you experiencing problems — accidents and delay? We base plans on that feedback from public.”

Wednesday’s informational meeting at Danville Regional Airport did not include a presentation or question-and-answer period, but rather was an opportunity for residents to help define important transportation issues and discuss those issues with local officials. At the next meeting in November, URS will provide an updated long-range plan and then develop a preferred plan for 2010.

“This is trying to set priorities and identify what the long-term projects will be,” said Kent Shelton, Danville’s city engineer. “The issue right now is with state revenue. (Most of these projects) are probably long-range options because there’s not much money right now.”

Of the more than 20 projects established from the 2005 plan, a number have been completed or are underway, such as the demolition of the Worsham Street Bridge. Other projects, however, will be pushed back to the long-range plan depending on necessity and funding.

“(VDOT’s) six-year improvement program is going to be a real small subset of these plans,” Dowd said. “But we can dream and we’re going to try and program all this up to 2035. Some of these will be pushed onto the ‘vision’ plan. That’s a separate list, a dream plan.”

• Contact Amos at or (434) 791-7983.