Improvements to the traffic signal system along Route 29 north of Charlottesville will require nighttime lane closures beginning next week. The work, which will be done at seven intersections between Hydraulic Road and Rio Road, will begin Monday, Oct. 6 and is anticipated to continue for several months.
Contractors with the Virginia Department of Transportation will close lanes between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. to upgrade the existing vehicle detection equipment installed in the pavement. Daytime work that does not require lane closures, including installing underground conduit and fiber communications cables between the intersections, will also be done. The construction is part of the first phase of the installation of adaptive signal control technology on the Route 29 corridor.
This work is being done in preparation for construction of the Route 29 Solutions projects. The upgraded signal systems will allow real-time traffic monitoring and adjustment of the signal cycles by traffic signal engineers at the Northwestern Regional Traffic Operations Center in Staunton. The current equipment requires a signal technician on site to make adjustments to the signals at each intersection.
The installation work is scheduled to begin in the northbound lanes at the Hydraulic Road intersection and move north until the equipment and communications infrastructure is installed at all seven locations. When that is complete the same work will be done in the southbound lanes, beginning at Rio Road and moving south to Hydraulic Road. Motorists traveling on that section of Route 29 between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. should be alert for construction signs, slow down and follow directional signs through the work zone.
Information about highway work zones and other activities that will affect traffic is available on VDOT’s traffic information web site, www.511virginia.org. Call 511 for traffic information by phone or 1-800-FOR-ROAD (367-7623) 24 hours a day to report highway-related problems or get information about Virginia’s roads.
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Chris Graham
