RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A troublesome stretch of road in Richmond’s Northside is drawing city officials’ attention.
A recent road safety assessment presented at February’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee meeting showed a one-and-a-half mile stretch of Chamberlayne Avenue has experienced a high volume of crashes.
The report highlighted key issues on Chamberlayne Avenue between Belvidere Street and Brookland Park Boulevard, it showed that there were 21 serious injuries and five deaths on this corridor between 2018 and 2023. Of those crashes, 80% happened at intersections, while the rest of the city only saw 50% of crashes happen at intersections.
The assessment also showed that 100% of the crashes that occurred along that stretch of Chamberlayne Avenue were speed-related.
“It’s just over the years and time, just neglect of this strip,” Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert said. “You know, the lights, the medians, the crosswalks, not enough of them. And it’s a lot of speeding, especially as you come down Chamberlayne.”
Lambert was a part of the team that walked the stretch of road to observe the area as part of the assessment in November.
Some proposed solutions have included better streetlights, speed cameras and adding more crosswalks.
“It’ll come to be about $200 million,” Lambert said about the cost of those proposed solutions. “So, that’s city funds that we just really do not have, so we have to look at our federal and state partners to help us fund these projects.”
Lambert, along with other council members on the committee, said the next step in this process would be to identify the funding necessary to complete those improvements.
“I think a lot of the improvements that we saw from that plan a couple weeks ago, was really highlighting the need of really investing in the infrastructure for walkability, and designing that from the intention of how we move forward, not looking backwards,” said Richmond City Council member Andres Addison.
