For anyone who has been in Charlottesville for any duration of time, it is quite obvious that a major link in transportation routes is currently missing. There are essentially 3 major interstates that a person will frequent in the Charlottesville area, but unfortunately they don’t all connect in the most intuitive ways. There is I64, which runs West to Crozet, Waynesboro, and Staunton and runs East to Fluvanna and Louisa counties and then to Richmond. Then there is I250 that intertwines and bypasses 64, running alongside it East/West for many miles. Finally, there is I29, which provides our only major North/South traveling option. With lots of the population in Charlottesville now migrating to the North of town (Hollymead Town Center, Forest Lakes, Briarwood, Camelot, etc) but often commuting to the East of town (whether it be the Pantops area, Glenmore, Keswick, or all the way to Richmond) the Eastern connector is a proposed route to connect areas North on 29 with areas East on 250 and closer to 64.

Currently, the Northernmost place that 250 connects with 29 is at Hydraulic Road, which is heavily trafficked, and leaves a lot to be desired for people who have to backtrack going South to eventually turn around and end up North. Some of the proposed roads where the Eastern Connector may branch from? Rio Road/Pen Park area, Polo Grounds Road, or Proffitt Road, which is the closest imitation of an Eastern Connector currently in Charlottesville.

The Eastern Connector is currently being hotly debated in the Charlottesville area, with several different routes, all which are argued by many to be too expensive, or too close to their back yards.

I have put a couple of helpful links below, but there is an onslaught of information about the Eastern Connector out there. This is just a random smattering.

Here is a link to a little Mapquest example of what the current drive between Northern Charlottesville and Eastern Charlottesville currently looks like– you can imagine what a convenience it would be to have a hypothetical hypotenuse side to the connect the dots of the two sides we currently have of a triangle.

The Albemarle County Eastern Connector Study Site

The latest opinion of the c-ville; The Eastern Connector Limps Along