I along with a lot of other people who live there would agree that a lane widening would be prudent. Shoot I’ve been wanting a bike lane down 711 since forever, think of that safety value that would add.. But what concerns my neighbors and myself is the alteration to the front of our subdivision and the waste of a redundant dry pond when there’s already one present at the front of the subdivision.. No one contacted any of the residents to let us know or ask for our input. And from what I’ve read is that no more review is felt necessary due to lack of funding… Where’s the democracy in that. The people vote and make the decisions. There is more going on here than the public are being told and I believe we have over 150 households that are going to have a voice on the matter real soon. While it may seem trivial to consider the entrance of a subdivision worth protecting it’s something that a lot of us have put our hard work into maintaining and we need a say on what takes place on our land. The State, County, and VDOT need to explain the real reason’s they’ll be making the improvements due to the new jail projects that will be built soon affecting our property values. I’ve lived there for going on 7 years and pull out onto 711 every morning.. That intersection is not the most dangerous part of that road.. It’s farther down past Lee’s landing headed east going up that big hill and around the curve at the top that should be addressed. Period and I would be dumbfounded to see anyone beg to differ. If you travel that road you know how bad it is. So again.. what’s the real reason for the construction?

Waste of money!!

Drive 711 everyday.  Problem is speed, tailgaiting, texting and day dreaming.  Need for enforcement and reduce speed in problem areas.

Proposed changes do not correct the above!

@ Lesa,

Thanks for the heads up and insight.

@ Powhatan Driver… You are right about drivers on 711 not staying their lanes!!!  It’s really bad the closer you get to Chesterfield. However that happens on Rt. 13 too. I love the groves that hum… like they have on 522. Every 2 lane road with a speed limit of 45 and over should have them. I do admit that most all of the intersections on 711 have an “issue” and if money were no object, should be “fixed”. But… since we have precious few transportation dollars, the county should spend them wisely. Like I said earlier, this intersection doesn’t appear to be such an issue until you actually find yourself needing to take a left onto 711 from Pleasants. My daughter actually got her learners permit during my battle with the BOS over the Mill Quarter Rd. Project. When I was sitting in my little Saturn, checking out this intersection, it just made me sick to think that there were places like this that she, as a new driver, would one day have to negotiate. I remember coming home and telling her if she ever got into a situation where she could not see oncoming traffic to take a right and then make a U-turn as soon as she could. I said it might cost you a minute or three but at least you won’t get killed or hurt taking a blind chance! I hope this project gets the green light! It should have gotten the green light about 3 years ago. Better late than never I guess.

Improving the Rt.711 and Pleasant’s Rd. intersection would make the visibility for turning better, but it won’t slow the people driving 60+ through there or on any other part of 711. People speeding and driving over the middle line are a constant challenge to the daily drive. The speed limit signs or lack of them do not seem to matter.

Leesa, thank you for your research.  Most of us were unaware of how VDOT allocates funding for roads, so that was very helpful information.  The fatality was not mentioned in the news article so it was not clear.  I am familiar with that intersection and have been through it many times - usually in a pickup truck so the visibility of traffic coming eastbound on 711 is much better than in a car. 

Just to mention on near miss accident that I had at that intersection was when I was driving my horse trailer east bound one weekend morning.  I always slow down on approach ‘just in case’ since I know there is the chance that someone may be pulling out for a left turn.  Well, that day the problem was someone also traveling east who had gone just past their turn so they decided to BACK UP.  Thank God I had slowed and that there was no oncoming traffic or I would likely have had a serious rear end collision.  Instead I veered around them and passed.  I was quite shaken but continued on slowly - but looked back in my rear view to see that they were still backing up. 

I guess a left turn lane (from 711)  would have been helpful in such a situation.  But who knows.  You just can’t fix stupid.

Thanks for the info, Lesa.

@ Just Me:  The county gets “pots” of money for transportation projects. Each “pot” has a road type designation. This intersection will use a “pot” of money that can only be used for secondary roads and in this case the “secondary road” will be Pleasants, not 711. At least one of the roads in the purposed project needs to be a seconday road ie. Pleasants. The “pot” that will be used for this project can’t be used on Rt. 60 because 60 is not a “secondary road”. @ Mr. Reality, I never found out who requested this or why this intersection was on the 6 year secondary road plan but it’s been in line for the money for a very long time, maybe over 20 years now. It’s actually a perfect example of a road to qualify for the plan. The plan says a road should have an array of use… or something like that but as an example, Pleasants Rd. is used by members of a church,  workers and customers of a Christmas tree farm (don’t know if they are still in business), workers at the prisons, and people from elsewhere come to Powhatan to use this road to go to the prision, like visitors and then of course, the residents that live on and off of Pleasants Rd. This is, in my opinion, the worst place on 711 to take a left hand turn onto 711 due to the total lack of site distance. Then I would say the next would be the intersection at Three Bridge because of the angle to 711. It was very interesting to actually go to each of the intersections on 711, in traffic, and take a left turn. Taking a right turn at Pleasants onto 711 is not much different than any of the other intersections, it’s just the left turn. When I did my research, I was driving a Saturn so my eye level was quite low. I guess if everyone drove pickup trucks or large SUV’s it wouldn’t be such an issue. I sat thru several years of Powhatan’s annual six year road project hearings and there were only a VERY few people that came and reported any road issues they wanted addressed. The majority of the requests were from Pleasants Rd. residents and one man that requested the road be put on the plan was a State Trooper and he was pleading for a fix before someone was killed. He didn’t know that there had already been a fatality at the intersection.

I don’t know too much about this particular intersection, but in my mind, if VDOT has so much money all of a sudden, how about finishing the job you started when you repaved Rt. 60 from the school zone west.  There are places that the new pavement is almost as high as the guard rails.  The two feet of gravel that was put down, if you notice where people have ran through it, the tires just sink, kind of like trying to ride a bike on the beach.  Not to mention where there are no guard rails and a twenty foot dropoff into the woods.  Just a thought.

Powhatan has lots of bad intersections.  I’m curious why this particular one, complete with an 8 foot shoulder on both sides for bicycles and pedestrians, has found its way to the top of the list.  Seems like total over-kill.  For a truly hair-raising experience, try navigating the Rt. 711/Judes Ferry Rd. intersection during rush hours.  I think the 6 year transportation plan calls for a round-about there.    Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but maybe Senator Watkins can shed some light on what’s in the works at the Corrections Dept. property.