CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Virginia Department of Transportation has begun taking public comment on plans to reconfigure the 250 bypass and Emmet St. as part of the Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions (STARS) study, the department announced Tuesday.

As it prepares for the next phase of planning, the department has launched two surveys, one on Route 29 between Hydraulic Road and Woodbrook Road in Albemarle County, and the other on the Route 29/250 Bypass interchange with Emmet Street in the City of Charlottesville.

Both surveys will be open to comments through Oct. 27.

The plans the department is seeking comment on were drawn up from an initial public survey period in May 2025.

The corridor situation came into a particular focus just five months after that public comment when a pedestrian was struck and killed by a motorist last October on Emmet St. near Holiday Dr. Since then, city leaders have talked about how more pedestrians may be in the corridor due to the low-barrier shelter at 2000 Holiday Dr, which opened Sept. 1.

While those issues have drawn the most attention, VDOT Culpeper District spokesperson Sharon Ketcham said she believes everyone who drives in those areas regularly has feedback they can share.

“I don’t think anyone who drives that interchange, anyone who has come in from 250 trying to get to Emmet, coming 29 north from Bodo’s Bagels, trying to get on 250 doesn’t have a story,” Ketcham told Cville Right Now. “In STAR studies, we are trying to focus in on what people who experience those intersections, what they’re feedback is, what they can tell us. Whether (it’s) their experience as a driver, their experience as a pedestrian, their experience as a bicyclist.”

The project was discussed in last week’s Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meeting, during which Jack Jouett Supervisor Sally Duncan expressed concern with whether the bike lanes would have solid barriers or just stripes on pavement.

“That is something we’re going to work on with design, with VDOT and our consultant team and we will have the final answer in December when we will have the final alternatives,” Albemarle County Planner Alberic Karina-Plun said in the meeting.

Ketcham said bike lanes, sidewalks, ramps, and roadways are all parts of the project VDOT wants public input on.

In the surveys, respondents are asked about specific segments of the intersections and interchanges that are being evaluated. Each segment has a series of questions where the respondent rates concepts on a scale of 1-5, with boxes available for comments after each question. The wrap up has another box to comment on aspects of the overall project that may not be covered in the survey questions.

“The more feedback we get, the better,” Ketcham said. “Then as the process moves along, whether the county and the city want to go to Smart Scale and put in an application for that, then we go through the public hearing process and citizen information meetings if need be.”

There is no timeline for the start of construction as the project is still in these preliminary planning stages, but Ketcham said as VDOT seeks public comment and prepares to take immediate next steps, this is the time when the public needs to weigh in.

“Please be a part of that now on the front side of this because that’s when all this planning happens,” said Ketcham. “This is when decisions are made.”