THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230234
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
The City Council today is scheduled to consider ways to protect lives along a sharp curve on Centerville Turnpike.
The council has delayed voting on correcting the troubled S-curve near Land of Promise Road for weeks as the community and the council try to decide the best approach.
The city staff is recommending that the curve be realigned. The creation of this new road would destroy two homes and cost $1.5 million.
Although some residents along the road told the council that they would welcome the change as a way to improve safety, at least one family in the realignment's path objects to being relocated.
A less expensive option, which would smooth out the curve and add warning lights and rumble strips, would destroy no homes.
It would cost $850,000, but the city staff says these repairs would be temporary and would not go far enough in making the road safe.
The council also is being asked to approve temporary warning lights along the curve until improvements are made.
The curve has been blamed for two deaths and has averaged five accidents annually over the last five years, according to the city staff.
The curve handled about 7,500 vehicles a day in 1994 and is expected to handle 13,200 vehicles a day by 2010.
The less expensive option is something the council is carefully considering as its five-year capital budget tightens. City revenue has seen a slight decrease while debt payments are growing.
Chesapeake City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 306 Cedar Road. by CNB