HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — After roughly two years of construction, Wilkinson Road in Henrico's Fairfield District is finally open to the public. The road is one of the county's most traveled thoroughfares, averaging about 8,000 cars a day.
Tuesday's opening day was a cause for celebration for Henrico County leaders and neighbors in the area.
"This road is more than just asphalt and concrete. It's a vital lifeline that connects us all and I'm so proud to see it open for everyone else to use," said Roscoe Cooper III, Vice Chair of Henrico's Board of Supervisors.
After more than a decade of planning, the nearly 70-year-old road is now raised to a higher level and is now made up of three separate bridges to stop the frequent flooding from the surrounding swamp waters. It also inclues an improved guardrail system and was widened to include a bike lane.
"In any one given year, there was a pretty good shot that this road would flood with some of the severe storms, and with some of the recent storms that we're getting, it was becoming more and more frequent that the road had a possibility to go underwater," said Henrico Director of Public Works Director Terrell Hughes. "Essentially every given year, now there's only about a 10% chance that it'll flood, versus much higher odds."
The project didn't come without growing pains. During construction, residents had to use a detour that, in some cases, doubled their drive time.
“Been complaining about it for days, for years, and this is the second time that we had to make detours because of Wilkinson Road and this bridge," said Maeola Strother, who lives nearby. "We would go to church on this road, we would go to the drugstore on this road, the doctors, so it was very important."
But Hughes said the public's patience paid off.
"Had we not been able to close to traffic, this project probably would've took double the amount of time, so it was a 20-month project. It probably would've been a two-to-three-year project. With intermittent closures, so some of the bridges, you still would've had to close traffic down, so it would've been longer and there still would've been some intermittent closures."
Richard Flanagan, who oversees a neighborhood civic association near the road, said the community was in constant communication with county leaders about the closure and the detour, noting the heavily trafficked route.
"Now the fire department that's right up the street, they don't have to go around or whatever to get to our neighbors," Flanagan said. "We have the hospital route back open again, and we have the elementary school back open again."
Hughes said DPW is planning to extend bike lanes along Wilkinson Road, which could possibly connect to the Fall Line Trail in the future.
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