By the time Isle of Wight County supervisors opened the floor for comments on the proposed widening of Main Street at its intersection with the Route 10 Bypass, it was after 11 p.m. and the number of attendees in the boardroom had thinned.

As a result, no one spoke during the scheduled March 20 public hearing on the matter, though county officials said they’d received several written comments ahead of time. The public has through March 31 to continue submitting remarks by phone or email. No vote was taken, and none is required, as the project is already approved for state funding.

The $8.5 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 curb-and-gutter infrastructure, lighted push-button pedestrian crossing signs at the intersection and upgrades to parking and lighting at the park-and-ride lot at the corner of West Main Street and Pole 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.

County transportation administrator Jamie Oliver said construction is expected to begin in May 2027 and last 18 months, resulting in an October 2028 completion date.

Prior to the hearing, the county held an open house from 4-6 p.m. in the foyer outside the boardroom where residents of Smithfield and Isle of Wight County could view the most current construction plans.

 

Widening plans predate Grange

One of the most frequent questions Oliver said she’d received ahead of the hearing concerned whether the project had been spurred by an anticipated traffic uptick tied to developer Joseph Luter IV’s proposed Grange at 10Main subdivision that’s named for its location at the corner of Main Street and Route 10. Smithfield’s Town Council approved mixed-use zoning for a 267-home version of the Grange in 2023, though Luter has since returned with a revised plan that calls for only 93 homes, which he says would equate to a 41% reduction compared to the 4,700 daily vehicular trips VDOT had estimated the 267-home concept would generate. The latest Grange concept still calls for a hotel and its commercial phase being anchored by an indoor/outdoor structure that would house the town’s farmers market and a restaurant. 

According to Oliver, plans to widen Main Street at Route 10 began in 2010 with a state Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions, or STARS, study and had been the subject of a 2015 VDOT operational study. The county first sought state funding for the project in 2018 during the second round of Smart Scale.

The first Smart Scale application was denied but the county reapplied in 2020 for the third round and was awarded funding in 2021.

Luter and his father, former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph Luter III, didn’t purchase the 57-acre Grange site until September 2020, and didn’t officially submit their rezoning application until December 2022.

 

What isn’t included

The county is separately administering a $1.8 million project, largely funded with federal grant money, to extend 4,600 feet of sidewalks from the 500 block of Main Street, where the Grange would be located, to Westside Elementary School and along Great Spring Road to where it meets Quail Street, also now known as James Chapman Way.

The scope of work for the road-widening project includes east-west crosswalks across Route 10 to connect with the sidewalk project, but will not include crosswalks across the expanded six-lane Main Street, despite a preliminary illustration showing crosswalks across Main Street.

The reason for this, according to county and VDOT officials, is that the road-widening project is intended to reduce traffic queuing on Main Street. A pedestrian crosswalk across Main Street would run counter to that purpose.

The scope of work also won’t include lengthening the existing right-turn lane off the northbound lane of Route 10 that funnels traffic heading into downtown Smithfield onto Main Street.

Oliver said that’s because Route 10 is a limited access highway, meaning it was designed for through traffic.

Any break in the traffic flow of a limited access highway goes through a different approval process overseen by Virginia’s 17-member Commonwealth Transportation Board.

Oliver said the sidewalk project and the ongoing rehabilitation of the Cypress Creek Bridge that connects the east end of Smithfield with downtown are both scheduled to be completed before the Main Street widening would begin.

The Cypress Creek Bridge project is on track to finish this fall. Isle of Wight County supervisors last year awarded the sidewalk project to Williamsburg-based Branscome Operating LLC and gave the notice to proceed earlier this month. The sidewalk project has now begun.

The Main Street widening plans can be viewed online at www.isleofwight.gov/wmainst-us258/. Residents can comment through March 31 by calling 757-365-1654, emailing joliver@isleofwightus.net or sending mail to P.O. Box 80, Isle of Wight, VA 23397.