Second Part Of Connector Opens Next Week
Third Leg Should Be Done By September
Posted: December 7, 2012
Construction workers Brett Waite (left) and Mike Blair with A-Annandale Inc. install a speed-limit sign on Stone Spring Road on Wednesday. The new street is slated to open next week. (Photos by Nikki Fox)
The Stone Spring portion of the Southeast Connector is slated to open next week.
A construction crew works on Stone Spring Road on Wednesday. The new street is slated to open next week.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, officials will recognize the completion of the second segment of the project. The section runs between South Main Street, just south of its intersection with Pleasant Hill Road, and the existing Stone Spring Road, near Beery Road.
The new portion will be part of Stone Spring Road, said Jim Baker, director of the Harrisonburg Public Works Department. It will be open to the public as soon as the ceremony is complete.
A traffic light at Stone Spring Road and South Main Street will flash starting Monday to warn drivers of the pending opening. Another signal will go in at the intersection of Stone Spring and Beery roads in mid-February, officials say.
With the new road section, Pleasant Hill Road, from South Main Street to Beery Road, will be closed to through-traffic.
Officials opened the first phase of the four-stage project in August 2010. It widened Erickson Avenue at its intersection with South High Street.
The third leg should be finished by September and will connect South Main to Erickson at Pear Street. Pear Street was relocated as part of the first phase.
The first three phases will cost about $31.5 million; Harrisonburg’s commitment is close to $11 million.
A fourth and final phase, which has yet to be designed, will improve Erickson from South High Street to the western city limits near Garbers Church Road.
The work within the city by Perry Engineering Co. is part of a broader southeast connector that involves Rockingham County and Rockingham Memorial Hospital.
The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors plans to consider a formal contract for the last section of its connector later this month. The section will run from the new intersection of Stone Spring Road at Reservoir Street, near RMH, to U.S. 33 near Boyers Road.
Contact Preston Knight at 574-6272 or pknight@dnronline.com