OUR VIEW: Road projects will make area a safer place

Staff Editorial
Published: August 22, 2008

» SUMMARY: At a time when funds are hard to come by, it is refreshing to see three important road improvement projects come together.

When the school doors opened at the new Eastern View High School earlier this week, a whole new traffic pattern was born.

Officials estimate that as many as 300 additional vehicles rolled through the intersection of U.S. 29 and Route 666 — the main artery bringing people from town to the new school.

If you made that drive, it was hard not to notice that the intersection has taken on a new look. The area is newly paved, marked and surfaced, with newly installed longer turn lanes making for a more effective flow of traffic.

Traffic signals were in operation, reconfigured, while rumble strips and caution lights were put in place up and down U.S. 29 to alert travelers to the congested area ahead.
The amazing thing was how quickly the work was completed.

Crews worked in the area seven days a week — often 16 hours a day — to get the job done before the new school opened. One worker on the site said he put in a 90-hour week down the stretch run of the project.

The work looks good and should make for a safer approach for students until a new interchange can be completed. That may not happen until 2016, so this fix is an important stop-gap measure.

The U.S. 29 and Route 666 intersection isn’t the only road project in the area seeing a flurry of activity.

At the county’s other new school, crews have been frantically preparing the entry way from Sperryville Pike to Yowell Elementary and downtown, North Main Street is being resurfaced with the work being done at night to cause the least amount of disruption.

Road funds are scarce these days, but it’s nice to see some area projects get the attention they deserve.