Fredericksburg residents got to see and comment on designs for the Dixon Park Connector Trail during a public hearing.
On Sept. 30, the Virginia Department of Transportation held a public hearing at the Walker-Grant Center in downtown Fredericksburg. Local residents were invited to look at proposed designs for the commuter trail and to offer their thoughts to the officials and engineers involved in the plan.
The design proposes to build a trail connecting Dixon Park in the city to the cul-de-sac at the eastern end of Caroline Street. This would use existing trail systems to make these connections. Two potential alignments for the trail were under consideration during the hearing.
This design depicts the trail which will run from Caroline Street to Dixon Park.
According to Kelly Hannon, VDOT’s Communications Manager for the Fredericksburg District, the proposal would also allow for better access to the Fredericksburg Train Station and other points.
A host of improvements would be made along the trail in order to preserve the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists. These include a crossing under Route 3/Blue and Grey Parkway and dedicated bicycle lanes between Dixon and Frederick Streets.
Other improvements that would be made include building an approximately 10-foot-wide paved trail, a bridge constructed over Hazel Run Way and the installation of retaining walls.
Among the viewers at the event was Adam Lynch, a Sophia Street resident and former member of the city’s planning commission. Lynch expressed his support for the project and its design,
“I love it, we go to the pool in Dixon Park and it would be great to ride our bikes there,” Lynch said. “Being able to find a protected path through the woods and along the streets to bike on, it would be awesome to have that.”
One design aspect that Lynch said he appreciated was the placement of parking between the road and the bike lanes. This design is intended to separate the two lanes and provide extra protection for bicyclers. The proposal also has “sharrow” pavement markings, which indicate that vehicle and bicycle traffic would share the road.
Others who attended the meeting expressed concerns about the design of the project. One such viewer, lower Caroline Street resident Charles McDaniel, said he felt that the costs of the project were not justified and that it was too expensive for the potential usage.
The cost of the project has been estimated by VDOT to come in at $9.3 million, which would come entirely from SMART Scale, a state transportation funding program. Within the grand total is $1.6 million for preliminary engineering and a cost of $853,470 for right-of-way. The bulk of the SMART Scale funds, $6.9 million, will go toward the construction of the project.
McDaniel was also cynical about the shared bike and vehicle lanes going from Caroline to Dixon,
“It’s an absolute disaster,” he said. “They’re taking two lanes and making it one lane. Having a bicycle lane, it’ll cause all sorts of problems with delivery vehicles and people moving in and out. It’s just a disaster.”
VDOT will continue to accept comments and suggestions for the trail design until Oct. 10. The projected date for the start of construction is proposed to be in January 2028. The project is expected to be completed by 2029.
