After months of acrimony, the University has received approval to begin construction of the Ivy/Emmet parking garage.
Construction had been delayed after the Virginia Department of Transportation found a University-initiated traffic study to be flawed.
VDOT accepted the scope of a new study Friday, thus officially allowing for construction, but VDOT still must agree that the University has implemented all recommendations from the study before the garage can open.
Virginia Secretary of Administration Sandra Bowen decided Sept. 6 that the University could start construction once a new traffic study was approved by VDOT.
A committee including representatives from the University, the City of Charlottesville, local residents and VDOT determined the scope of the new study.
The committee chose Richmond engineering firm Kimley-Horn to conduct the study at a cost of $93,000, to be paid by the University.
The new study, lasting from mid-October to the end of the month, will take a new set of traffic and turning movement counts at 17 intersections. Traffic also will be measured at a basketball game in late November, University Spokeswoman Louise Dudley said.
"The main point is to get a current picture of the traffic pattern in a broader area of the city," Dudley said.
After it has collected enough data to compose an accurate picture of current traffic conditions, the engineering firm will use computerized models to analyze the potential effects of the garage, she said.
They also will study the effects of different types of drivers likely to use the garage, specifically the differences between students, who are more likely to park for shorter spans of time and University employees, who may park for longer spans, she added.
The firm then will make suggestions for improvements to ensure the area around the garage will function properly, she said.
Potential recommendations are varied, said Rebecca White, director of University Parking and Transportation, who serves on the steering committee.
"Traffic mitigation strategies that we may implement could be anything from changing turning lane lengths and creating dedicated turning lanes, to adding diverters in the road to move traffic in a certain direction to traffic signal coordination. There could be a whole range," White said.
She also noted her pleasure with the cooperation of the committee's members, particularly in the face of much public controversy surrounding the garage.
"We all worked very hard on the scope of the study and we all worked side by side -- we were all together," she said.
City Councilman Kevin Lynch said the new study does not change the fact that the project itself is flawed.
"I still think it's a bad idea," Lynch said. "It shouldn't take a professional engineer to realize that putting a 1,200 car garage at an already crowded intersection will increase traffic in the intersection."
Lewis Mountain Road Association President Art Lichtenberger said the neighborhood association was disappointed that the construction will be allowed to begin before the study is completed.
"We felt it didn't make much sense to start construction on something before understanding the implications of what will be studied," Lichtenberger said."But, there's nothing we can do about that now."
He added, however, that the association was "looking forward to seeing what this study shows and what U.Va. and the city can do to mitigate traffic."
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