Editor, The Smithfield Times:

A few similar points that I emailed the Suffolk mayor that are relevant to Isle of Wight County residents:  

• Something needs to be done in Suffolk, Route 17 north and south, where road construction is in Bennett’s Creek/Harbourview. It’s been awful, with 15-minute drives turning into 45-plus minutes as we crawl through terrible traffic. 
• All the residential overdevelopment in Suffolk and Carrollton has resulted in most of this that we suffer through.
• We barely made my 93-year-old mother’s doctor appointment on time on Route 17 south. On the way back on Route 17 north, our Jeep overheated because of the traffic crawl and we had to take it to a repair shop. It was stop-and-go, and all the red lights didn’t help. This is also dangerous for drivers!
• Two days this week, my husband drove Route 17 south and had to turn around both days. It’s been backed up south from Food Lion to Bennett’s Creek every day lately.
• VDOT needs to do a better job to keep traffic safe and moving and possibly get the construction done at night. There’s so much traffic around here now that this construction project is a traffic hazard.
• The roads should have been widened before all of this development came to Suffolk and Isle of Wight County, but the builders keep building. Tons of people are complaining on local Suffolk and Carrollton Facebook pages and on Nextdoor. Some mentioned their babies in their cars!
• North Suffolk and Carrollton used to be so nice with little traffic on two-lane roads. We originally moved out here for the country living, which has unfortunately disappeared.
• Please get with the Board of Supervisors in Isle of Wight County and with VDOT before planning and approving more developments, and hopefully discuss what to do about these current, terrible Suffolk Route 17 backups. Our bridges are overwhelmed.
• We understand backups when there is an incident or accident, but these backups have been going on too long. Whenever Interstate 664 shuts down, Route 17 is at a standstill too.
• We understand that Route 17 is finally being widened in a small area, but the backups are terrible when you’re miles behind hundreds of cars barely moving! We taxpayers are very concerned and upset. 

 

Liz Coburn

Carrollton