Residents near U.S. 460 protest proposal

The message came across loud and clear from Pleasant Valley and Tyreeanna neighborhood residents Thursday night, regarding a plan that would drastically alter highway traffic through the area: not wanted.

For over an hour, VDOT Lynchburg District Manager Rob Carey gave a presentation and answered questions related to a plan that would, among other things, close off four median turn-arounds on U.S. 460 between Concord Turnpike and Campbell Avenue.

The plan would force traffic to use a proposed – and ostensibly safer – jug-handle turnaround at Concord Turnpike.

Multiple times, residents interrupted Carey’s presentation, voicing opposition to particular points or asking him to wrap up quickly.

Carey stressed that the proposal in question was not yet set in stone, and that citizens’ questions were being recorded and would be considered as any plan regarding that stretch of U.S. 460 moved forward.

“This project definitely has benefits – safety benefits and benefits to people traveling through the corridor,” Carey said after the meeting.

He emphasized that, while local concerns play a large role in whatever plan is implemented, conditions U.S. 460 have a statewide, even national impact.

“This is the second-highest level of roadway that we have in the state,” he said, adding “we want to meet the goals of that (statewide) network … while we try to find ways to mitigate, to the greatest degree possible, the impact on the community.”

Many of those who spoke out during the meeting advocated what they saw as a much easier and less expensive solution: lower the speed limit.

Joseph White, a longtime neighborhood resident, said he saw a combination of lower speeds and caution lights as the best possible option.

“Reducing the speed limit would really, really do a lot as far as safety and reducing accidents,” White said, adding that if the turnarounds were closed, “it would divide the community.”

White said he saw few positive aspects in the plan Carey proposed Thursday.

“It would close businesses, it would cause more time delay, it would cause delay in emergency situations … it would just eliminate a lot of access to the community,” he said.

In a letter to neighborhood resident Lorenzo Megginson, Lynchburg Fire Chief Brad Ferguson expressed concern about the proposed closures, saying response crews would lose “critical minutes” in cases of heart attacks or structure fires.

Megginson, who helped facilitate the meeting at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, said he presented a petition opposing the project to Carey, a petition that he said contained around 1,200 names.

23rd District Delegate Scott Garrett attended the meeting, and addressed the gathering as it wrapped up.

“It’s a balance between the needs of this community and safety and commercial interests,” he said, adding the state’s budget is such that many best-case scenarios simply aren’t feasible.

“We do not have the money to be aple to put hundreds of millions of dollars to be able to fix every one and a half mile segment of road across the commonwealth,” he said, adding “I don’t know that many folk in here want us to go raise a whole bunch of taxes to have all the money so that Mr. Carey and his team can buy all the right of ways and put thousand foot long deceleration lanes and that type of thing.”