News Flash

(Roanoke County, VA—January 10, 2022) Roanoke County is hosting an open house-style community meeting on January 13th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Bonsack Elementary School for the Route 460/Challenger Avenue Land Use and Connectivity Study.

The Route 460 corridor located between Interstate 581 and Botetourt County has been identified as a regional priority for improvements to address congestion and safety. In 2020, this roadway carried the second-most traffic in the Roanoke Valley, behind only Interstate 581 and Route 220.

Challenger Avenue in Roanoke County handles an average of 32,000 vehicle trips per day and includes two of the County’s top five crash locations at West Ruritan Road and at Cloverdale Road.

VDOT worked with localities to study the Orange Avenue and Challenger Avenue corridor in 2019 and 2020 with significant public input to determine potential solutions to reduce congestion and to improve safety. Six projects from this study received a total of over $43 million dollars from the Commonwealth Transportation Board and from the Roanoke Valley Transportation Planning Organization in 2021 to begin addressing these issues. Project design and construction is anticipated to occur over the next five to seven years.

Building upon that VDOT study and the funded projects, Roanoke County began the Route 460 Land Use and Connectivity Study in 2021 to focus on three goals:

1. Recommend ways to travel around the Bonsack community that are alternatives to Route 460/Challenger Avenue;
2. Consider existing zoning classifications and future land use designations to determine potential changes to match desired development types; and
3. Examine existing at-grade railroad crossings for potential improvements that may create development opportunities between the railroad and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

At the open house-style meeting where attendees may come and go as they please between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., County staff and consultants would like to hear about area roadways in need of improvements, desired bicycle and pedestrian improvements, what land uses and development types are preferred, existing railroad crossings and thoughts on the potential for development between the railroad tracks and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A survey is also open until January 28th which asks questions related to the study goals. More information is available at www.RoanokeCountyVA.gov/460Study along with a link to the survey.

A second community meeting will be held in May 2022.