Construction Has Begun on the Courthouse Village

Up until now, the work has been concentrated on the Bypass. For the past few weeks, preparations were being made for the Village between the Bypass, Brock Road, and Robert E. Lee Elementary School. The open area that has been a "field in waiting" is waiting no longer; the first building walls went up this past week.Just as notable, and welcome to drivers at the BFEX end of the Bypass, was the completion of the pavement at that end and the opening of all four lanes between the new Business SR 208 traffic light (see the final pre-opening picture at 080106BFEXSR.jpg) and the Battlefield exit. Compare the picture 070429BFEX.jpg with 080426BFEX-1.jpg, which is a year later. The bit of bare earth in the 2007 picture is where the road curves to the right behind the signs at the Battlefield exit in the 2008 picture. All traffic used to go straight at the new curve, and now drivers must go through the curve and turn left at the Business SR 208 traffic light to go directly to the Courthouse and county administration buildings; the straight route is not only blocked, the former pavement has been covered with earth with curbing around it.

Here is a guide to the new pictures chronicling the Village construction:

• The SLDR and SYW pictures are the same as before, only now they will show the building construction.
• The BFEX picture was a one-time addition to highlight the before/after comparison described above.
• Next time, the BFEX picture will be replaced with a new set of BRTV pictures. These will be just to the Courthouse side of the traffic light installation that was visible in the BR608, BRAV, and BRTV pictures of the road construction.

The large Mega-Mix dispensers were visible from SLDR up until Friday evening, April 25, 2008. The cinder blocks in the building had gone up that day, and blocked the view of them. The RACSB building is visible in 080426OBB-1.jpg straight above the post lying on the ground in the picture; the Spotsylvania Post Office is the brick building on the left side of the picture. Observe that Old Battlefield Blvd. will curve to the left just before its intersection with the Bypass so as to meet it square on.

Not shown, but the OBB intersection and the 7-Eleven on Business SR 208 can be seen from each of those two locations. The view of the 7-eleven is at about 60 degrees to the left of the view in OBB.

The whole area seems smaller now that these areas can be viewed from locations where they were obscured before. On a smaller scale, it is similar to what happened to the distance between the Interstate 95 interchange at Route 3 and Fall Hill Avenue when Fredericksburg's Central Park went in; or what is happening now with construction at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre in the area behind what used to be know as Spotsylvania Mall.

Traffic is sparse along Business SR 208 during non-business hours since the Bypass opened. However, the 7-Eleven and the twice a week farmers market are still operating; and complaints of no more Courthouse traffic jams have not surfaced so far.

mcw

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