March 20 is the new date for Smithfield and Isle of Wight County residents to review and weigh in on plans for the widening of Main Street at its intersection with the Route 10 Bypass.

Isle of Wight County had initially scheduled a 4-6 p.m. window for Feb. 20 ahead of a same-day public hearing on the project, both of which were postponed a month due to Winter Storm Kingston.

The new open house will still be from 4-6 p.m. in the foyer outside the boardroom of the county government complex at Monument Circle, with the rescheduled public hearing now to coincide with the Board of Supervisors’ regular scheduled March 20 meeting that will begin at 6 p.m.

The $8.4 million county-administered project, which is fully funded through the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smart Scale cost-to-benefit formula, calls for widening Main Street on both sides of Route 10, adding a second through lane in each direction and reestablishing left- and right-turn lanes with improved capacity. The scope of work also calls for drainage improvements, new curbs and gutters, lighted push-button pedestrian crossing signs at the intersection and upgrades to parking and lighting at the park-and-ride lot northeast of West Main Street’s intersection with Great Spring Road.

VDOT maintains park-and-ride lots throughout the state for motorists to park their cars and take an alternate form of transportation, such as a bus. The lot in Smithfield currently has 66 parking spaces and direct access from West Main Street.

The plans show an expanded lot with 116 parking spaces, which would be accessed by an extension of Great Spring Road rather than West Main Street.

Preliminary engineering for the project began in 2023 and right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation began in mid-2024. Construction is expected to begin in January 2026 and last 18 months, with completion estimated by July 2027.

The county is administering a separate $1.8 million project, largely funded with federal grant money, to extend 4,600 feet of sidewalks from the 500 block of Main Street to Westside Elementary School and along Great Spring Road that will provide pedestrian access from Quail Street to West Main Street. The widening of Main Street and the new sidewalk will each front the 57-acre Grange at 10Main development Smithfield’s Town Council approved in 2023 for the western edge of the town’s historic district. Grange developer Joseph Luter IV has since proposed a lower-density version of the Grange that would swap three-story apartment buildings for townhouses, reducing the development from 267 homes to 93.

Isle of Wight County supervisors last year awarded the sidewalk project contract to Williamsburg-based Branscome Operating LLC. According to Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson, the contract has been approved by VDOT and the Federal Highway Administration. The county anticipates issuing Branscome a notice to proceed by March 1. The contractor will be required to mobilize and begin construction within 10 days of that date, Robertson said.

The Main Street widening plans can also be viewed online at www.isleofwight.gov/wmainst-us258/. According to a public notice published in the Jan. 15 print edition of The Smithfield Times, residents can also comment by submitting remarks by March 31 to Jamie Oliver, transportation administrator, Isle of Wight County Public Works, by calling 757-365-1654, emailing joliver@isleofwightus.net or sending mail to P.O. Box 80, Isle of Wight, VA 23397.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:17 a.m. on Feb. 25 to note the deadline for submitting written comments has been extended from March 3 to March 31.