Eastern Avenue

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Eastern Avenue (Crozet)
Planned
Project Overview
Interconnect future and existing Crozet neighborhoods. Eastern Avenue will be a major north-south road connecting Route 240 and Route 250 from the area around Western Ridge and the Conagra plant to an area near Cory Farms. Eastern Avenue will traverse the proposed Lickinghole Creek Bridge.
Cost	$12.9 million (total - some portions have been built by developers)
Location	Albemarle County
Sponsor	Albemarle
Status Update
Requires Lickinghole Creek Bridge and is part of Crozet Master Plan.
VDOT Dashboard	N/A
Contact	Lance Stewart, Albemarle County Director of Facilities and Environmental Services

Eastern Avenue is a planned north-south road that will connect Route 240 and Route 250 east of Crozet. The road has been built in pieces and completion is being considered under a public-private partnership.

Route

Eastern Avenue is a proposed major north-south road connecting the area around Western Ridge and the former ConAgra plant on 240 to an area near Cory Farms on 250.

North of Lickinghole Creek, Eastern Avenue extends from Park Ridge Drive to Westhall Drive. The roadway is 61 feet wide with two travel lanes, two bikes lanes, and five foot sidewalks on each side. The firm Kimley-Horn was commissioned by Albemarle County in to study alignments for a southern extension and they finalized a report dated September 20, 2020.

Kimley-Horn studied three conceptual alignments from the existing southern terminus as Westhall Drive to Route 250, known as Rockfish Gap Turnpike. The biggest constraint is the lack of a crossing of Lickinghole Creek. The study evaluated impacts to environmental features by the required bridge as well as right of way acquisitions that would be needed. The consultant recommended an alignment with a 270-foot bridge that would connect at Cory Farm Road.

Eastern Avenue will traverse the proposed Lickinghole Creek Bridge, which must be built before Eastern Avenue can be completed.

Kimley-Horn recommended Alternative B which would connect with Cory Farm Road

Status

Eastern Avenue has been created in in section as parcels along the right of way are developed and as rezoning requests come before the county.

Supervisors agreed on August 7, 2024 to pursue a request for proposals for a public private partnership to complete the roadway.

2019 status report

Right-of-way was dedicated by the Westhall and Cory Farm developments and is available upon demand of the County. The red line on the below map shows the alignment with dedicated right-of-way between Westhall Drive and Cory Farm Road.

The Crozet Community Advisory Committee was briefed on the status of the project at their meeting in May 2019. The following Q&A is from an update from neighborhood planner Andrew Knuppel that is an update from transportation planner Kevin McDermott.

Q: What are the factors delaying construction of this road?

• Funding for engineering/design and construction remains the primary issue.
• This project is ranked #8 on the County’s Draft priority list as a “First Tier” project. The methodology and full list will be presented to the Board this summer for final approval.
• The best option for funding for this project is through the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)’s Revenue Sharing funding program, which requires a 50-50 match for state and local funds. $5 million is available in state funding per locality each year.
• The expected cost of this connection is ~$8M, which means the County will need to contribute ~$4M to this project through its Capital Improvement Program to qualify for Revenue Sharing. For context, last year’s CIP included $1.5M for all County projects.

Q: Is property ownership an issue?

• No. Right-of-way was dedicated by the Westhall and Cory Farm developments and is available upon demand of the County. The red line on the below map shows the alignment with dedicated right-of-way between Westhall Drive and Cory Farm Road.

The Eastern Avenue project will proceed as Albemarle County considers the rezoning of property in and around the area.

Completed portions

Foothills Crossings

A portion of the road is being built as part of the Foothills Crossing development.

Timeline

• January 8, 2020 – Albemarle Supervisors appropriates $275,000 from the Transportation Leveraging Program for the "Eastern Avenue South Connection Design and Engineering Study Capital Project"
• September 2, 2020 – Albemarle Supervisors approve a right-of-way dedication of 0.057 acres of county-owned land for a portion of the roadway
• December 2, 2020 – Albemarle Supervisors approve a resolution to allow Stanley Martin Companies, builder of the Westlake Hills development, access to the county owned property for drainage improvements.
• January 20, 2021 – Albemarle Supervisors agree to accept two portions of Eastern Avenue totaling 0.27 acres into the state secondary system of highways. They also accept a written report from Kimley-Horn titled Eastern Avenue Alternative Alignment Development Summary
• May 19, 2021 – Transportation planner Kevin McDermott tells the Board of Supervisors completion of the southern extension has a preliminary cost estimate of $19,983,000.
• September 15, 2021 – Albemarle Supervisors agree to include the Eastern Avenue Southern Connector as part of a VDOT revenue sharing program application. By this point the cost estimate has increased to $22.1 million.

See also

Eastern Avenue (Underpass)