By Neil P. Allen
KILLINGTON—On July 20, the Killington Planning Commission voted to accept the VHB Killington Road Survey Study, and will be forwarding the study to the Select Board to enact on the engineering services and design work for Phase 1 of the project.
The study addresses the reconstruction of Killington Road, which has been planned for decades. The plan addresses the needs of all the users of the corridor, including drivers, pedestrians and bicycle riders. Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) was retained by the town to provide planning, traffic engineering, roadway design, and streetscaping services to the town to develop an effective improvement plan for the Killington Road corridor.
At the meeting, a motion was made to accept the final draft of the study. According to the minutes, “It is the Planning Commission’s intent to forward this study to the select board so that survey and design work can be initiated, and engineering services can be retained to prepare design drawings for Phase 1.”
The Planning Commission added two concerns to its acceptance of the plan, according to Lisa Davis, Killington’s consulting town planner.
“The approved resolution identified two issues. Firstly, the revised report eliminates the buffer between the curb and the multi-use path. While the committee had concerns with the proposed grass strip, they recognize that some buffer is desirable and should be installed where feasible,” she said.
“Secondly, the study does not address the drainage impacts associated with the extensive use of curbing on both sides of Killington Road. This will need to be addressed in the design phase,” Davis continued. “The commission also recognized that without complete survey data, the plans are highly conceptual and once we have a current survey of Killington Road, we can move to the design phase where we will flush out these issues.”
