RECENT COMMENTS
Meeting set on plans to widen Main Street, relocate Dock Street
City residents and business owners will have an opportunity to view the proposed concept design for the East Main Street/Relocated Dock Street Project at a public meeting on Wednesday, March 23 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the Powhatan Community Center (5051 Northampton Street)
From the press release:
The project will provide a better transportation network in the rapidly developing east end area of the City and increase pedestrian and bicycle access to the City’s riverfront, public transit, public parking and streetscape.
The scope of the project includes:
- Relocating Dock Street from Pear Street to Peebles Street with a roundabout at the Main Street intersection;
- Widening East Main Street from the proposed roundabout to Gilles Creek to include parking, bike lanes, landscaping, and Bus Rapid Transit pullouts;
- Evaluate the Main Street and Nicholson Street intersection to determine if a traffic signal or roundabout is needed;
- Adding sidewalk and landscaping along Nicholson Street to the railroad bridge;
- Closure of Water Street between Nicholson and Ash streets.
The project will build on a significant number of plans and projects that are currently underway or have already been approved for the area, such as Stone Brewing Company, Pulse-Bus Rapid Transit and the Virginia Capital Trail.
Representatives from the Department of Public Works and the design firm of Whitman, Requardt & Associates, LLP will be available during this public meeting to answer questions. Attendees also will have an opportunity to fill out comment cards.
A zoomable map of the area in question. https://www.google.com/maps/search/water+street+map+rva/@37.5232848,-77.4164753,17z
“Closure of Water Street between Nicholson and Ash streets.”
Does this mean a closure of Wharf St? I’m not familiar with a Water St in that location.
Where is Peebles St?
From what I can tell from google maps, Peebles Street is between Williamsburg Rd and Main Street, where those buses park under the train tracks off of Ash Street. Never heard of it.
And I think they mean Wharf St when they say Water St, is my guess.
A light is needed at Main and Nicholson Streets, and also maybe at Main and Orleans Street–the pedestrian crossing situation there in the morning (folks parked on Orleans but trying to get to work across the way in the offices at Rockett’s Landing) is getting sketchy.
@#3 You are correct. This link from
https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/4big2e/meeting_set_on_plans_to_widen_main_street/
illustrates the current layout & future plan well:
“The press release refers to the stretches of roadway as Public Works would, which is with their official names as recorded in the route log (signage, schminage). Here’s a diagram using the city’s official GIS centerlines to show what’s what:
http://imgur.com/a/qhUVu
@Taber – yellow squiggle = gone? (for the proposed changes)
Richmond is way too roundabout happy: what that intersection at Nicholson/Main needs is a TRAFFIC LIGHT. As a cyclist, this is the single worst intersection that I have to come across daily.
tabor… haha your squiggles look like my squiggles when I tried to explain the streets years ago at another site… Peebles Street wasn’t part of that discussion…
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/RVamaps/streets.jpg
However there is a triangle there with a small monument/marker between Peebles, Main and a closed portion of Ash Street… so they’re going to roundabout that? Why don’t we just replace all our traffic lights with roundabouts?
Oh and looking at the city’s parcel mapper… Main Street after Nicholson has gotten really wide since the last time I noticed… Do we have any other streets that go under buildings? Why are we getting rid of that?
Wharf Street,.. I am amazed by all the cobblestones… just a sea of cobblestones…
As a cyclist I’ll take a roundabout over trying to line my bike up perfectly with the metal detector to get the light to change any day.
The City Dept of Public Works and Community Planning have been working on this for awhile (maybe 2-3 years) and this is the first opportunity for public review or input. So I hope that this is a serious meeting to gather real input and make changes as necessary based on thoughtful input. In addition, this is the second of two city meetings looking at pieces of the East End riverfront area, and both have been too narrowly drawn. We need a public process to look at the whole area from the “low-line” to Rocketts including the entire street and bike/ped network, development parcels, parks, the proposal for 400 parking spaces between Main St and the trestle, etc
my question is, which developer friends of the mayor is this going to benefit? don’t see them spending all this dough for “the public good”
We went and it wasn’t a meeting or presentation per se, but rather about 4 or 5 poster boards on easels, showing different elements of the project (elevation/cutaway views of sidewalks and medians on Main Street; new street parking; remapping of Dock Street; Pulse routes). People were there to answer questions, but it was hard to tell who was from what bureaucratic apparatus. The event was focused mainly on transportation but it was hard to tell who was in charge, the city or GRTC. That made it seem disjointed and left the impression that not all sides of the project are talking to one another, and leaves me skeptical that they will talk throughout the implementation. At various time questions about traffic lights and traffic circles and rerouting of traffic were deferred, as well as bus/transit specifics, and parking/pedestrian access concerns. Was hard to get a straight answer to some of our questions. Attendees were invited to give input and feedback via questionnaires.
I’ll scan the docs and maps and post’em in the morning
@#24–there are big changes coming and something is definitely needed at Nicholson and Main: with all of the street parking that will be along Main Street after the changes, there will be many pedestrians parking on the north side of the street that will need to cross Main to get to the trail, and bus users who will need to cross back across Main to take the bus back west toward the city. Also, traffic from Stone is adding to the already-heavy flow of traffic. The buses will be heavy through there as we’ll, and the turnaround will be through Rocket’s Landing, requiring them to make a left from Nicholson (inside Rocket’s) onto Main to head back west on the BRT route).
Even without all the changes coming up, traffic from the east in the morning will only get heavier. It’s too fast now and pedestrians have a hard time of it.
My hope if for a light, and NOT a circle–we’ve already seen how people don’t GAF about slowing down for traffic circles. People driving west on Route 5 from Varina towards downtown are going 40 miles per hour and are not going to yield or slow down if they don’t have to in their effort to make their morning commute. Also: the plan of the traffic circle at Main & Ash & Dock looked like a terrifying mixing bowl–people need to react to this and let the city know their feelings, otherwise it could be a complete mess that is dangerous AND ineffective.
There is a need for a comprehensive approach to the development activity on the riverfront – not this piece meal approach where folks are not talking to each other.
Let the city project leads know.
There are major impacts to our neighborhood – air quality, the loss of trees which are a major contributor to good air quality, increased traffic coming up from Main Street during rush hour and racing past the city park and the residential area and the scrubbing clean the history of the area told by the street grid of the busiest port on the east coast in the 1790’s
Comment deadline is April 5
http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/forms/East_Main_Street_Comment_Card.pdf
Dock St Relocation/EastMainProject feedback deadline has been moved to Friday April 8.
If the city project web site is not working, comments may be sent directly yo the project manager at adel.edward@richmondgov.com.
Ask for a comprehensive public planning process for the East End Riverfront! For clean air, safe pedestrian and bicycle byways, traffic calming design with historic sites honored highlighted, for the tourist