Church Road safety, mobility changes planned

Church Road in Henrico’s Far West End is set to undergo safety and mobility changes – including resurfacing and the addition of medians and buffered bike lanes – within the next few months.

Residents who live near and frequent Church Road previously had expressed concerns about the lack of crosswalks in the area, which prompted a survey that evaluated local opinion on potential safety measures. Of the 426 total responders, 71% supported the option of creating dual bike lines with a median.

The project is a reconfiguration of the existing road, so there will be no widening or creation of new infrastructure, according to Henrico Public Works Director Terrell Hughes.

“It’s a very cost-effective way of helping out with speeding and creating a pedestrian friendly area,” Three Chopt District Supervisor Tommy Branin said.

Branin is hoping the process begins within the next two months, he said.

Past safety changes to Church Road include a 2019 speed limit change from 45 mph to 35 mph. Prior to the speed change, there were 14 accidents in 2018 on Church Road, but there were zero in 2020, Hughes said.

“This [project] is kind of a continuation of that,” Hughes said. “We want to take the four-lane segment of road down to a three-lane segment, which will be two travel lanes in each direction. Then, in the center, there'll be a center turn lane and some medians to serve the purpose of providing pedestrian refuge.”

The three-lane segment will help to slow drivers down, as the way Henrico used to build roads, wider and straighter, led to faster driving, Branin said.

“What’s a better place to create connectivity,” Branin said. “[Church Road] doesn’t have sidewalks, only a portion of it does, so to provide connectivity for biking, walkability for walking, jogging, all of that, and also to put that road on a diet to narrow it, every time we've done that in the county, it always does what we are hoping for, which is to slow people down.”

The Church Road reconfiguration is a good example of what public works hopes to do with more roads in Henrico in focusing on connectivity as new funding and opportunities arise, Hughes said.

“Right now, it's kind of like playing the game of Monopoly, where you go around and you buy pieces, but it hasn't really come together yet until you get three in a row, and then you can start building hotels and whatnot,” Hughes said. “That's kind of what we're doing with the biking infrastructure. We're identifying low hanging pieces, pieces that we can implement.”

The majority of projects public works currently has in development are sidewalk and trail projects, including the Fall Line trail and a short stretch on Pump Road that will connect people who live on one side of the road to sidewalk infrastructure on Three Chopt Road and Broad Street, Hughes said.