Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The Chesapeake City Council convened at 6:30 p.m. on October 13, 2026, in the City Hall Council Chamber, following a 4:00 p.m. closed meeting for boards and commissions interviews and a 5:00 p.m. work session on the Master Transportation Plan. The council certified the earlier closed meeting, approved the agenda and consent items, heard citizen comments, and adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
You know, does it turn into a dumping ground that Earl's people will have to clean up because it's not used? Will it create traffic that then has to exit onto existing streets that may not be able to handle it? So building it in pieces is necessary, but it does require the thought and the timing of how you implement each individual piece. So the manager alluded to it earlier, but our transportation network is largely oriented north-south. So, you know, we we have 17 and Dominion Boulevard, uh one Battlefield Boulevard and the Expressway, uh, Greenbar Parkway, and to a lesser extent, uh Centerville Turnpike all carrying traffic north-south, you know, uh, you know, moving Chesapeake residents as well as northeastern North Carolina up to the interstate system and to the rest of the region. Uh we do have some connectivity in the northern half of the city uh with uh military highway, but in the southern half of the city, there's virtually no uh good east-west connectivity. And I'll I'll give you an example. So uh it's probably been 15 years or more now, but uh one Saturday during the summer we had a tanker truck uh turnover on uh local uh battlefield boulevard just south of the entrance to the expressway. That shut down all uh north uh south traffic on Battlefield and and uh 168 Expressway, it uh required all of that traffic to be detoured uh either down Benefit Road or Ballahack Road, and those are the two uh green alignments shown uh on the map, the the two southernmost ones. It it wreaked havoc on our uh network that day. So a lot some of the improvements that we're looking for aren't necessarily needed on an everyday basis for everyday capacity, but they are needed for additional resiliency uh to to respond in emergency situations, and and that is a very good example of uh you know when that capacity is is much needed. You know, anybody that's driven those roads uh you know that you know that they're narrow, they're windy, they're just not designed for that kind of traffic. But uh we do call for both of those facilities to ultimately uh be improved to four-lane uh divided roadways. And uh and so this is the trails map. So again, I won't spend a lot of time on this other than to say this is another companion document to the master transportation plan. And similarly, uh you know, we we have a lot of needs uh and this plan uh also serves as the blueprint for future investments, uh, both to the capital process and to the development process uh, you know, for for uh non-motorized transportation. Okay, so as Earl mentioned, there's a number of of obstacles or issues and challenges for existing roads. He mentioned the windy road issue. Um that can create issues, it can increase the frequency of interruption, and it can also increase the expense and viability as an alternative access. Um flooding in Chesapeake is somewhat frequent because we're affected by abnormal rains, but we're also affected by various tidal conditions. And another title or another drainage issue is because we have so many earthen ditches, a lot of times we run into a failure as a result of things that we don't even know are a problem until there's an incident. Um that picture on your right is one of Cedar Road. There's two locations on Cedar Road that are both susceptible to tidal influence and periodically are inundated and unpassable. And unlike Battlefield Boulevard having the alternative of the bypass, they basically, in some sections, they might have Bells Mill Road, but for the most part, there's really not alternatives in the location of these um locations that flood. The next slide doesn't exist, just talk about it. That one doesn't exist. Okay. Okay. So the other thing that I would point out on Cedar Road is there's a number of important facilities that are utilities, both franchise utilities gas lines and water lines and so forth. And on Cedar Road in particular, we've had multiple issues where that major gas line has had leaks and they've even had to evacuate adjoining properties and close the road, and when they do that, it's just we're closing it now. There's no advanced notice, and if you don't have that resiliency, it can create a lot of headaches. Um here's some of the things we're talking about interruption, but resiliency also helps you bridge the lack of capacity. So in the case again of Mount Pleasant Road, capacity was a problem, but it wasn't like an insurmountable problem at the time that had to be instantly fixed. And as a result of that other project coming on that provided resiliency, it was able to provide relief. And but it it happened on a slow period. In the case of, for instance, Cedar Road, which is the east-west on the west side of battlefield. Um, in the event we don't eventually develop some resiliency in a very short time, we would have to be looking at do we six lane battle um Cedar Road and the expense that comes along with that when there's been so many properties that have developed along that route. Um we talked about the interruptions, the public utilities, so public utilities can create the need to close the road if there's a problem, but it also they have the same problems with resiliency that we do. If there's a water line problem on Cedar Road, there's not many other water lines that are parallel. So as you build roadways, you build utilities, and all your infrastructure will become more resilient. Um this is the master transportation plan. We're talking about the grass field area. If you look at that um what's that shape? Is that an ellipse? Okay. Anyway, the the vertical oval. If you look in that area, you'll see there's only one east-west route that goes through that area that exists today, and that is Cedar Road. And again, on the west on the east side of 168, we have more resiliency by having a parallel arterial. Okay. So there is a development before us, and you know, one of the first things we identified when this property was in need of development was it lied in the pat it lied in the path of an important east-west planned roadway on the master transportation plan.