Engineers have hit the ground running in their efforts to redesign Lynchburg, Va.'s most congested intersection, while also trying to keep pace as inflation raises construction costs and urban development increases traffic.
The project will divide U.S. Highway 501 into a split pair of northbound and southbound roadways at its intersection with U.S. 221 west of downtown.
Its proposed design will increase capacity and reduce delays by spreading traffic across two intersections instead of concentrating it at the current single junction, Lynchburg City Engineer Lee Newland told Cardinal News, a Southside Virginia online news site.
The design process, led by McCormick Taylor Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting engineering firm, has been a long time coming, he said. Lynchburg municipal leaders have been discussing the need for the overhaul since at least 2008.
Initial progress was made in 2018 with a different engineering firm before the city canceled its contract with the company in 2023, Newland noted. He added that Lynchburg had an overall "loss of confidence" in the previous outfit when it became apparent it could not stay on track to finish the road project during the city's designated timeline.
The estimated cost of the U.S. 501/U.S. 221 construction project is $93.6 million. While that calculation takes projected inflation into account, Newland said it will likely rise again before crews break ground in the spring of 2029.
The total price tag includes approximately $10 million for the land at the construction site. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) acquired the properties in the 1980s and '90s before the parcels were transferred to the city at no cost in 2009.
The City of Lynchburg is the biggest financial contributor to the improvement effort as it is providing approximately $51 million — $10 million of which is being matched by the state in a revenue-sharing fund.
The remainder of the cost is covered by a $30 million Smart Scale grant issued by VDOT, and a $2.7 million award from the state's priority transportation fund, according to Newland. He also hopes to secure a federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant, which could be worth up to $25 million, in the 2026 application season.
Lynchburg's public works officials applied for the BUILD grant the past two years but were turned down each time, Cardinal News noted.
In a highly competitive program like BUILD, Newland said that submitting the application can feel like a long shot as the federal program distributed only 30 grants nationwide in Fiscal Year 2025, which ended June 30.
Initial Price Tag Has Skyrocketed in Seven Years
The cost of the proposed Lynchburg highway intersection upgrade has more than doubled since it was first calculated in 2018, he said. The initial $38.5 million price tag skyrocketed in 2021 with pandemic-related inflation and has remained high with rising costs on everything from materials to labor.
Gaynelle Hart, Lynchburg's director of public works, said that those costs also increased because a bridge was added to the original design that will carry the new northbound stretch of U.S. 501 over Old Forest Road before connecting to the Desmond T. Doss Expressway.
City engineers decided the bridge was needed to prepare for projected traffic increases by giving vehicles more space to spread out at the intersection, noted Newland.
Hart said that other than the addition of the U.S. 501 overpass, the entire project's designs are almost identical to the original 2018 plans. Engineers are only making small adjustments to elements such as stormwater flow, retaining wall placement and curvature and grade measurements.
Until the road and bridge construction starts in four years, Hart explained that engineers will continue finalizing the project's designs and work to meet federal construction guidelines — both of which are slow processes that require patience, he said.
If all goes as planned, the major intersection improvement should conclude in 2031, according to McCormick Taylor's website.
Retail, Employment Growth Fueling Traffic Congestion
In describing the need for an upgrade to the U.S. 501/U.S. 221 intersection, Newland said about 65,000 vehicles pass through the junction every day. As a result, it is the most congested intersection in Lynchburg, ahead of a stretch of Candlers Mountain Road that sees about 45,000 cars daily.
The construction plans are based on traffic projections from a 2018 study, he added. That year, about 58,000 vehicles routinely passed through the intersection.
The study forecasted steady growth in traffic every year from 2018 through the following two decades, leading to 78,000 vehicles predicted to daily pass through the intersection by 2035.
Newland explained that the split pair plan is being designed with the 2035 projection in mind, Cardinal News noted. In addition, he does not anticipate growth exceeding the predictions, especially because the estimates have matched observed traffic increases in the seven years since the study was finished.
"We can only grow so much," he said. "Avoiding engineering terms here, traffic is a lot like water. It finds its easiest path."
The increasing road congestion is due to retail and employment growth in the area surrounding the intersection, insisted Marjette Upshur, director of the city's economic development and tourism office.
She explained that Lynchburg is an employment hub for nearby rural and residential areas, which means thousands of workers pass through the central intersection on their way to and from home in places like Bedford County, and the communities of Forest, to the southwest of Lynchburg, and Boonsboro, north of the city.
Upshur's office is expecting even more job growth at Ivy Creek Innovation Park, an industrial park nestled in the northwest corner of the busy U.S. 501/U.S. 221 intersection.
In August 2025, the city received $4 million for additional Ivy Creek development from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program. That funding is enough to add two more sites to the industrial park that is already home to employment powerhouses like Frito Lay, BWXT Advanced Technologies and NovaTech.
A smooth and efficient intersection will be key to inviting new businesses to fill the open spots, she added.
"If you don't have easy travel access, businesses won't even look at you," said Upshur.
