Northampton nixes VDOT proposal for first ‘RCUT’s on Rt. 13

The Northampton Board of Supervisors declined to pursue a VDOT Smart Scale Grant to bring the first two Restricted Crossing U-Turn, or ‘RCUT,’ intersections to the Eastern Shore.

According to Northampton’s Planning and Zoning Administrator Susan McGhee, VDOT believes these types of intersections could be the future of Route 13.

The two intersections tagged for the project in Northampton were both in Exmore, one at the Broadwater Road intersection and one at the El Maguey intersection.

The design is intended to reduce accidents. According to VDOT data, most of the accidents at these two intersections are broadside accidents from individuals crossing 13 from the secondary road or turning off 13 from the left turn lane.

According to the VDOT website, all side street movements begin with a right turn in this design, side street left-turn and through vehicles turn right and make a U-turn at a dedicated downstream median opening to complete the desired movement and main intersection and median U-turns can be designed as signalized, stop controlled or yield controlled.

Approval to move forward to request the funding for the projects would have needed to be approved by both the Northampton Board and the Exmore Town Council.

Chairwoman Betsy Mapp, who represents Exmore, indicated she did not think it was a good idea and the board declined to make a motion to proceed.

.