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Over the last month, the Virginia Department of Transportation asked Farmville residents to send in their comments. They held a public hearing and even gave people a 10-day window afterwards, to speak up. All of that made one thing clear: a majority of town residents want the planned Farmville roundabout to be built.

At the public hearing on July 16, 25 people signed up. Out of all comments, only three were opposed to the Farmville roundabout. The same goes on the digital side, where 16 comments were taken. An overwhelming majority on that side supported construction as well. In more than 30 days of trying to get people to engage with and share any concerns they might have about the proposal, less than six total raised any issues or gave a reason that the project should be shut down. Even one of those was just temporarily opposed, as he said he was fine with the project as long as improvements were made to nearby streets.

“At this time, we expect the design will continue as presented,” said Len Stevens. He works as communications manager for VDOT’s Lynchburg District, which includes Farmville.

And in case this is the first time you’re hearing about it, the goal is to replace the traffic lights at the intersection of High Street, Oak Street and Griffin Boulevard near Longwood University with a roundabout. Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) officials believe the change would improve traffic flow and safety in the area. This would be a roundabout with a 70-foot radius and 10-foot truck apron, along with new sidewalks and crosswalks at the intersection. With the public hearing finished and the comment window closed, now it’s time for next steps, VDOT officials say. And granted, those next steps will take a while to complete. 

Next steps for Farmville roundabout 

VDOT now goes into the right-of-way business. The plan is to work to acquire right of way over the next few months, with work not expected to be finished until Summer 2025. Then, the roundabout would be put out for construction bids in the Fall of 2026. Under this schedule, construction wouldn’t start until the Spring of 2027, with the project completed by Fall of 2028. 

And to clear up some confusion that several residents have raised, no, this isn’t a project going before the town council. A previous council, back in August 2020, already adopted a resolution in support of the idea. In other words, the town council gave its support to the project and so VDOT sent the concept to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, to find funding in the state’s Smart Scale Program. So that part is finished. The only question now is what will it look like? That was part of the idea behind both the public hearing and the call for comment. 

Why this area and why now?

So why is this happening now? This is happening because VDOT officials labeled the area as a PSI intersection. That is, an intersection with the “potential for safety improvement”. Basically, enough accidents have happened that it ranks as a safety concern. How many? According to VDOT officials, there have been eight reported crashes within the 250-foot buffer radius of the intersection within the last five years. 

Converting to a roundabout should reduce that number of accidents created by the intersection from five to 2.3 during the 5-year period, the VDOT documents say, roughly a 54% overall crash reduction. The engineer says the number of accidents caused by the crosswalk should also be reduced, as the project will move the crosswalk further south to provide “additional sight distance for vehicles stopped for pedestrians.”

As for money? It’s not going to be a cheap project. In terms of cost, this will come in at $11.8 million. That breaks down to $7 million for construction. It’s an estimated $3.5 million for right-of-way and roughly $1.3 million for preliminary engineering.