One of Augusta County's shortest roads also happens to carry some of its heaviest traffic loads. A proposed fix would require no widening or stoplights, but instead, would bring the county its first roundabout.
A single, narrow road feeds the entire Wilson Complex in Fishersville. The complex includes four public schools, the County School Board offices and the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center.
The ultimate solution is not even on the drawing board, but re-working this intersection should be a big help. The two lane Woodrow Wilson Avenue carries some 5,700 cars, trucks, and buses a day, most of them squeezed into the before and after school rush. From the Wilson Complex there's no other outlet onto Route 250, even for emergency vehicles.
Bill Schindler of Augusta Schools Transportation explained, "Because there is one entrance in and one entrance out, there are concerns for the potential of what could occur. Sometimes the what-ifs are things that you can't contend with."
Schindler says his three dozen Augusta County buses could get some help from renovations at Wilson Elementary School. The project should bring with it a nearly $300,000 traffic circle or roundabout - the first on the public streets of Augusta.
Augusta County Supervisor Wendell Coleman stated, "I've driven into that complex for the last 46 years. In my estimation, that would greatly improve the traffic flow."
The roundabout would replace the Y-intersection that slows traffic going to and from schools and the Wilson Rehab Center. Coleman and fellow County Supervisor Jeremy Shifflett set aside money from their infrastructure accounts, in case the roundabout can't fit into the Wilson Elementary budget. But even this ambitious traffic project won't completely solve the problem. A complete fix would require a second access road for the entire Wilson complex.
"The only way that will ever happen in the future, is the private sector, and that to my knowledge doesn't seem to be any closer than it's ever been," said Coleman
The Wilson Elementary project should go out for construction bids in June, and be complete in 2013. In addition to the roundabout, it will also provide a new access road for the school itself, which will separate car and bus traffic for the first time.
Proposed roundabout would be the first one on public roads in Augusta.
