Virginia Beach, Va. - A major road project in Virginia Beach is wrapping up after four years of work.
The intersection of Princess Anne Road and Kempsville Road has been a major project since 2011 that was designed to alleviate congestion. The intersection was actually moved from its original location a couple hundred yards away. Except for a few finishing touches, it's finally complete and all lanes are open.
The last of the traffic barrels at the intersection were loaded onto a truck Monday and removed.
Each leg of the intersection got some big improvements -- an additional through-lane, additional left turn lane and a designated right turn lane.
Project Manager Bill Haggerty says that's key to keeping cars moving.
"One of the issues for this intersection is there's a lot of turning traffic and that's what created a lot of congestion at the old intersection and by adding these additional turn lanes, it's dramatically improved," he says.
Some of the new lanes had already opened up to drivers and now with the last few open as well, Haggerty says it will continue to improve. They'll also be making adjustments to the signals if needed.
"Over the next two or three months, we'll continue to adjust signal timing as necessary to optimize the whole corridor. There is still some clean up to do and a few other parts of the project to finish," he says.
Crews are still working to finish up the sidewalks. Street lights will be installed in the summer and landscaping in the fall, but the major construction is complete.
The next major road project in the area will be on Witchduck Road. They'll be widening it from four lanes to six from I-264 to Virginia Beach Boulevard. That's expected to start in about a year.
