Short but Winding Road in Spotsylvania Targeted for Improvement
Six-year plans call for Harrison Road to be four lanes from U.S. 1 to State Route 3.
By Hank Silverberg
CORRESPONDENT
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It could take a decade to complete, and cost more than $60 million, but there is a plan to straighten and widen one of the region’s heavily traveled, narrow, and winding roads—the 2.4 mile stretch of Harrison Road between Salem Church Road and U. S. Route 1 in Spotsylvania County.
The mostly treelined road carries between 15,000 and 19,000 vehicles a day, according to a 2023 Virginia Department of Transportation traffic study. But since that study was completed, dozens of new homes have been built, and more are under construction along that segment of the roadway.
The plan calls for road improvements to be made in sections over six years, starting in 2027. The first step, which is already funded at $11.4 million, is to add two new eastbound lanes on Harrison Road and widen the road at the intersection with Salem Church Road.
This project will also include adding a 10-foot-wide shared use path connecting the Virginia Central Railway trail, a popular walking path, to new sidewalks on Harrison Road. Currently, the VCR trail ends abruptly at Salem Church Road.
Still unfunded but in the six-year plan for improving the roadway is a projected $31.4 million widening of Harrison Road from two lanes to four lanes between Salem Station Road and Carriage Hill Lane. This project would start in the summer of 2026.
Also in the plan but not yet funded is a $426,000 project to widen Harrison Road from Carriage Hill Lane to the Interstate 95 overpass. This work would start in 2029.
When the six-year plan is complete, Harrison Road would be a four-lane road all the way from U.S. 1 to State Route 3 near the Harrison Crossing Shopping Center.
VDOT also plans to do a $1 million study on the possible construction of a new I-95 interchange at Harrison Road, though that study won’t be completed until 2032.
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