New Entrance Under Construction Will Link West Broad Village & John Rolfe Parkway

Three Chopt Road, which once meandered through the farmland that now sits beneath West Broad Village, was at one time a popular cut-through for motorists trying to avoid Broad Street traffic. The segment of roadway that connected the neighborhoods of Church Run and Barrington to Broad has since been severed with new townhomes being constructed, […]

September 3, 2010; 12:28 AM • by Trevor Dickerson

Three Chopt Road, which once meandered through the farmland that now sits beneath West Broad Village, was at one time a popular cut-through for motorists trying to avoid Broad Street traffic. The segment of roadway that connected the neighborhoods of Church Run and Barrington to Broad has since been severed with new townhomes being constructed, eliminating easy access from many Short Pump neighborhoods.

John Rolfe Parkway, a segment of which recently opened to compensate for the old Three Chopt Road route and alleviate traffic, still lacks a way for drivers to get into West Broad Village without merging onto West Broad Street and fight throngs of traffic. That’s about to change with a new entrance.

The new entrance and exit to the mixed use development will be located behind the Short Pump Station shopping center which houses Petco and Trader Joe’s, to name a few tenants. West Broad Village’s new developer, E/Class Partners, is constructing the entrance to help with traffic flow.

Ease of ingress and egress and a cohesive flow of traffic between developments are some of the many requirements of the County of Henrico’s West Broad Street Overlay District, a special strategy area set up by County planners and meant to help encourage high quality development standards from Interstate 64 to just west of Short Pump Town Center.

Examples of connected planned developments include the roads around Short Pump Town Center. The mall is linked to the Towne Center West development to the west and to the Downtown Short Pump shopping center to the east via a series of two lane access roads.

The plan also calls for limited access to and from commercial developments near established residential neighborhoods. In keeping with this standard, West Broad Village’s original developer, Unicorp National Developments of Florida, agreed not to provide any access to the development from Three Chopt Road.

No word on when the new entrance will open to traffic.

September 3, 2010 12:28 AM 0