NORGE — Work to improve the sidewalk and bikeway along a stretch of Richmond Road near the Norge Crossing Shopping Center will begin soon, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced this week.

Happening between Croaker Road and Old Church Road, the project intends to support accessibility for residents and businesses in the area and bring the pedestrian infrastructure to Americans with Disabilities Act compliance standards.

Elaine Quick, who lives in the area near where the improvements will be made, said that it is an exciting development.

“Our club does a lot of biking out in this area,” said Quick, secretary of Williamsburg Area Bicyclists. “It’s always welcome to have more bike lanes to make it as safe as possible for cyclists.”

VDOT awarded J.S.G. Corporation of Williamsburg $1.6 million to complete the project by summer 2024. Spokesperson Kelly Alvord said that the improvements are a result of VDOT collaborating with county planners, elected officials and residents in James City County to accommodate the transportation needs that have arisen with the growth in Norge.

Citizens got an opportunity to review preliminary engineering project plans several times, Alvord said in an email. “Final design was approved in late 2019, with right of way and utility relocation activities for the project beginning in 2020 and completed in 2022.”

The plan calls for creating wider sidewalks on the northside of Richmond Road from Croaker Road to Norge Lane as well as the southside of the street between Norge Lane and Old Church Road. A bike lane will be built from the Croaker Road intersection to the shopping center, and a crosswalk with upgraded traffic signals will be installed at the Richmond Road/Norge Lane intersection.

Until the project is finished, daytime shoulder closures are expected with occasional single lane closures along Richmond Road, according to a news release, but Richmond Road itself will stay open.

Quick said it’s worth the wait.

“It would be wonderful if we could have a designated bike lane from Croaker Road all the way into downtown Williamsburg, to the Colonial area,” Quick said. “That way people could actually ride to work safely or ride down to the Colonial area because that’s always a destination.”

The changes are part of a greater vision for infrastructure upgrades in the county. VDOT has another project in the works to widen Croaker Road from two lanes to four lanes, Alvord said.

James City County Planning Director Paul Holt said that the county will seek funding from VDOT to lay some infill sidewalk by Laurel Lane Elementary School, Jamestown High School and Richmond Road, as well as shared use trails on Longhill Road over the Route 199 bridge as part of the Pocahontas Trail improvement project.

County administration needs resolutions of support from the Board of Supervisors before staff can work on funding applications for that project, Holt said in an email.

For Quick, these infrastructure improvements bring the county closer to the models seen in accessible cities around the world.

“It’s good for the whole community,” Quick said. “In Europe, these are kind of standard things to have on roads, and there’s no reason why we can’t have it in this country.”

J.W. Caterine, [email protected]