Hit the road
President Falwell calls for a third lane on Wards
In an informal meeting of Lynchburg-area college presidents and city government officials, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell mentioned interest in widening Wards Road to three lanes each way on the stretch of road from the River Ridge mall entrance and U.S. 460.
The meeting — which took place Sept. 21 at Heritage High School — was a part of a larger Town and Gown series of meetings established in an attempt to encourage talks with leaders of the local colleges and Lynchburg City officials.
Among those colleges represented by their respective presidents were Liberty, Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg College, Virginia University of Lynchburg and Randolph College. Mayor Joan Foster, Sterling Wilder and Mary Jane Dolan represented Lynchburg’s City Council at the meeting.
IMPROVEMENT — The pedestrian bridge over Wards Road is an example of how Lynchburg City partnered with Liberty University to build infrastructure. Photo credit: Michela Diddle
Falwell said in the meeting that a third lane in Wards Road could be built by paving the turn lanes on the stretch of road into regular lanes.
Previous to the meeting at Heritage, he engaged in talks with Lynchburg City Manager Bonnie Svrcek on the idea and noted Liberty would help pay for the project.
Although Svrcek said a third lane on Wards Road could be possible in the future, she noted that the project is not a priority of the Lynchburg Department of Transportation and that there are currently ongoing infrastructure projects that are supposed to alleviate the traffic congestion on Wards.
“The concept of a third lane on Wards road needs to be studied,” Svrcek said. “I know that when our transportation engineer worked at Liberty, there was a very rough conceptual sketch, but we haven’t done a feasibility of the concept. We haven’t done a corridor study, and it is not on the city’s priority list.”
The ongoing infrastructure projects meant to alleviate Wards Road traffic include the construction of the interchange bridge on Odd Fellows Road, U.S.
Route 460 off-ramp at Liberty Mountain Drive and extension of Liberty Mountain Drive. All three projects are expected to be completed near winter 2018.
Following the completion of the projects, Svrcek said the city will look at the results of the construction and determine from there whether further work is needed to alleviate the congestion on Wards.
There is so far no timeline as to when the third-lane extension of Wards would start.
“I think it will take us some time to figure out what the results are of those improvements on Wards Road, so I’m not going to tie a timeline to this at all,” Svrcek said. “There are a lot of moving parts in the city’s transportation infrastructure, and we take a look at what our priorities look like on a pretty regular basis.”
Both Falwell and Svrcek said the main concern is an over-congestion of Wards Road.
In 2015, the 1.64 mile-stretch of Wards Road from the south city line of Lynchburg to the Lynchburg Expressway received an average traffic flow of about 40,000 vehicles a day, according to a traffic count from the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Another concern is the constant growth of student population at Lynchburg-area colleges.
Liberty added many new students to its student body this year resulting in an enrollment of 15,146 — a new record.
After years of rising enrollment, Falwell said at the Heritage High meeting Liberty will likely hold its residential enrollment numbers steady due to the student body becoming too large for what Liberty’s campus and the surrounding Lynchburg area can accommodate.
Although a third lane on Wards Road is unlikely to be built in the near future, Svrcek said it is a necessity that Lynchburg City partners with Liberty on future projects to build sustainable infrastructure.
She brought up the pedestrian bridge over Wards as a past example of how Liberty and Lynchburg City have been able to partner to improve both city and campus life.
“For our collective success, it is necessary that the city partners with external entities,” Svrcek said.
“Whether it’s Liberty or a business or an entire industry, I know that in the end that working together is going to make (Lynchburg) an even more dynamic and successful city.”
Young is the news editor.