Community Corner

A Pastoral Route Opens from The Mall to The Valley

It's 1,500 feet of road through the woods.

A saved me at least 10 minutes and traffic stoplights, in my first trip over the new road Wednesday.

In a 15-minute period, I counted maybe two other cars on the new stretch of road in Chesterfield. So no traffic jam.

It's the Lydia Hill and August Hill drives extension, which the completed, and opened to traffic on Wednesday.

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With just 500 yards of new pavement, grading and bushwhacking through wooded property past (and the /pool) on one end, the shortcut dumps you out between two attractive housing developments (one gated) on the other end.

The ribbon-cutting on the thru-street was December 21.

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See photos of it during and after, plus the ribbon-cutting.

The 1,500 feet of new road . That's $1,000 a foot or $3,000 a yard, by Patch figuring.

So, if a driver wants to go from Chesterfield Mall for example, to the proposed two outlet malls in The Valley, there's now a quicker, more direct route.

Comparison shopping with the new connector could save drivers the typically backed-up left turn (with a short traffic signal) from the Parkway at Highway 40/64 (if you go the back way) onto Chesterfield Airport Road.

Coming from the opposite direction, the new route saves waiting on a left turn across Baxter Road at the railroad tracks, where cars appear over the hill from around a bend and hurl toward the bottom, where a line of cars waits to turn.

Instead, a driver gets a nice turn lane farther along Baxter Road, at August Hill Drive.

And if drivers prefer not to jockey for position getting on and off Highway 40/64β€”with its accompanying backups at Boon's Crossing exitβ€”the new Lydia Hill Drive shortcut to , and looks even better.

Regardless, it seemed pleasant to take a road less traveled in the endless loop of trips to Chesterfield Valley. If nothing else, just the notion of a choice of routes makes it all so much better.

And seriously, the prices, bargains, selection and eateries in the Valley are pretty hard to beat elsewhere, for convenience. Many of us spend more time down there in the Valley than we may admit. Am I right?


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