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Berryville to restrict tractor-trailer traffic
The traffic light at Main and Buckmarsh streets in downtown Berryville is green.But traffic isn’t moving because a tractor-trailer truck is blocking the intersection as it tries to navigate a right turn onto Buckmarsh Street (Route 340) to head north.
So motorists sit through a light cycle – or maybe even two of them.
Berryville officials are hoping this type of delay will soon become a thing of the past.
That’s because the town was notified last week that the Commonwealth Transportation Board has approved a request to restrict such trucks from using some streets only as a pass-through route, Berryville Town Manager Keith Dalton said.
The trucks would be prohibited from passing through on the following routes:
Main Street from First Street (Route T-615), west to the intersection of Main Street and Route 7 west of Berryville.
Mosby Boulevard from its intersection with Buckmarsh Street to its intersection with Jackson Drive, as well as on Jackson Drive, from its intersection with Mosby Boulevard to its intersection with Main Street.
Hermitage Boulevard from its intersection with Main Street to its intersection with Buckmarsh Street.
Westwood Road (Route 636) from its intersection with Main Street to its intersection with Senseny Road (Route 657).
Trucks could, however, travel on these routes if they are stopping to make deliveries along them. The town council has proposed alternate routes that trucks not making deliveries can use to detour around the town.
“It does not restrict a truck that has a destination; it also does not restrict trucks on Route 340,” Dalton said.
“The reason that we could restrict [through truck traffic] on Route 7 is because there is a bypass and there are alternate routes,” Dalton said. “That does not exist on [Route] 340, so such a request could not be made.”
The restriction will become effective once signs stating it are posted along the routes, Dalton said. Signs should be in place within the next 30 to 45 days, Virginia Department of Transportation engineer Jeffrey Lineberry estimated.
VDOT identified in advance the roads proposed to be restricted and sought public comment.
Fifty-four people signed petitions opposing the restrictions, but did not give any reasons why, Lineberry said. He said the agency also received 10 letters and e-mails from people favoring the restriction, noting a common complaint was the noise the trucks make as they pass through town.
“We put more stock in folks that took the time to write actual letters,” Lineberry said.
Traffic flow and safety concerns prompted the restriction, Dalton said.
“The intersection at Main and Buckmarsh was not designed for 53-foot-long trailers,” Dalton said. “So what would tend to happen is these trucks would not make it and would get hung up on the utility poles, or they would have to swing out so wide and wait that they would be blocking [traffic].”
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com
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