Storms over the last few weeks have caused some damage to the Wawa construction site in Prince Edward County. Located at the corner of Commerce Road and Highway 15, rains and wind have caused pieces of construction to collapse and some sediment to bleed onto Commerce Road. Prince Edward County Planner Robert Love said the company is working to address the issues. 

“The site was indeed hit hard by rain, which caused a partial collapse of a retaining wall,” Love said. “(Also) some sediment did escape from the site onto Commerce Drive. County staff inspected the site within an hour after the heavy rainfall and alerted the developer on July 18. The developer had a crew on-site to begin repairs on Friday, July 19.” 

Love said after the work crew cleaned up the area, county staff did a followup site inspection. The site was approved for construction to continue after additional seeding and stabilization efforts were completed by the developer’s contractor late last week. 

As for the impact on the property, Love said he couldn’t speak on any potential changes this would have to either the overall construction timeline or the anticipated finish and open date. He did say aside from the storm-related issues, work continues at a steady pace on site. 

“The gas tanks were installed last week and Wawa’s general contractor, Greybeale Construction Inc., is on site now, proceeding with the building construction work.” 

Wawa went through permitting phase

And before anyone asks, yes, in order to move through the planning commission and get approval from the county board of supervisors, the project had to be examined by both the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Over the last six months, DEQ gave the project its stormwater permit, saying they felt construction would not cause water to pool up and flood the area. To be clear, the stormwater permit is a general one that covers the 4.76-acre site and covers discharges of stormwater from construction. In other words, this makes sure that rain or any other water is taken care of without causing flooding or a negative impact on the environment.

Also approved was the erosion and sediment control, which had also not been seen as a problem. The property has also gone through a stormwater redesign, after a carwash moved on site, so the issue was looked at twice before being signed off on. 

Also, a full traffic impact analysis of the intersection was done by VDOT. That study looked at traffic at the intersection that includes Zion Hill Road, Highway 15 and Commerce Road. Previously the road had been getting backed up in the mornings during the school year and there was some concern about what impact placing a Wawa there on the corner would have. But VDOT helped reduce a lot of those traffic concerns over the last year, cutting student dropoff time from 12 minutes to 4 minutes. As a result, VDOT has signed off on the traffic impact study for Wawa.

Attempts to reach the developer were unsuccessful by presstime. But in previous discussions, officials had declined to comment on the project, asking to wait until its further along in the process. 

What will the site be?

Once construction is complete and the store is open, the convenience store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is expected to employ around 50 employees to run the store and fuel station.

The gas station will have eight gas pumps with the potential of adding charging stations for electric cars in the future, which was a requirement placed by the county planning commission. The store is expected to be a 6,000-square-foot store with eight gas pumps on the property.