Octonia Road closed for paving beginning July 29

Contributed article
Published: July 24, 2008

A construction crew from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Stanardsville Area Headquarters has begun working on Octonia Road/Route 637 in preparation for paving the gravel portion of the road, located just north of Stanardsville.
The paving project is expected to take three days beginning Tuesday, July 29. The unpaved portion of Octonia Road from its intersection with Route 230 west to the paved section will be closed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
Ford Avenue will also be closed just south of its intersection with Octonia Road, although Ford Avenue residents and other local traffic will be able to use Ford Avenue during the closure.
Motorists should use South River Road/Route 621 as a detour route.
The work will include regrading the travel surface, shoulders and the drainage ditches along Octonia Road, replacing a drainage pipe that crosses the road as well as several pipes that cross private driveways.
Once that work is completed the paving will be done. The estimated cost of the project is $86,900.
The paving project will be done under VDOT’s Rural Rustic Road program, which allows gravel roads to be paved with minimal changes to the road’s characteristics. Rural Rustic Road projects do not require the acquisition of additional right-of-way or extensive changes to the road’s geometry.
The program is designed for low-volume secondary roads that carry less than 1,500 vehicles per day and are in areas that are not expected to see significant increases in traffic volumes during the next decade.