On June 10, Louisa County issued a press release regarding a six-week road closure and detour on Route 33 from June 15 to July 4, prompting concern from local residents on social media about increased traffic potentially as a result of data center development.

The press release states that multiple infrastructure upgrades will be completed during the closure window. This includes a domestic water line replacement to connect to the new Louisa County Water Authority (LCWA) pump station, culvert installation to allow better flow from the Northeast Creek Reservoir to Northeast Creek, and a modern guardrail safety system alongside the highway to reduce severity of potential offroad incidents. Due to the amount of work for the project, the press release states that closure of just a single lane was not possible. The detour route includes Route 22 and 522 through the Town of Mineral.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) shared on June 12 that the work is associated with a “private land‑development project and is being carried out by their contractor, not as part of any state‑funded VDOT maintenance or construction project.”

Concerned residents took to social media, citing the road closure being adjacent to Amazon Web Services (AWS) North Creek Technology Campus. Several noted that the Louisa County press release does not mention data centers.

During the June 15 meeting, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors (BoS) had their VDOT quarterly update. The BoS welcomed Craig Simpson, the new Louisa Resident Engineer with VDOT. Simpson is filling the position previously held by Scott Thornton; Thornton stated before the BoS last month that he would be moving on to be the VDOT Resident Engineer for Petersburg.

According to a VDOT press release, Simpson will lead highway maintenance and opera- tions, land use, and emergency response for more than 3,100 miles of state-maintained roads in the counties of Orange, Louisa, and Fluvanna. He will lead more than 79 employees and serve as the primary local government liaison for all VDOT programs.

While discussing several other VDOT projects, Simpson touched on the Route 33 closure on the day the detour was put in place. He reiterated that it is not a VDOT project.

“All parties are highly motivated to get this work done this summer while school is out,” Simpson said.

While acknowledging “hiccups” with communication and coordination of the project, he stated that moving forward, VDOT wants to focus on ways to improve coordination with the county.

Mineral District Supervisor and Chairman Duane Adams asked if there is a way over the next 45 days of the road closure if VDOT could adjust the timing on traffic lights. He cited the lights at Sheetz and at 33 and 208 to give traffic more time to move through to avoid the buildup of traffic in the Town of Louisa.

“I drove through the Town [of Louisa] three times today, and each time there were heavier backups than normal and it’s because people can’t go down 33 now — they are going straight through 208 down to 522,” Adams said.

Simpson responded that he would reach out to the traffic engineering group and see what they can do about signal timing.

“The biggest problem here was lack of communication,” Adams said. “Lack of communication from the applicant, lack of communication from VDOT.”

The county found out about the exact closure date on June 8, Adams said, also noting that local residents found out the same day by signs installed along the road to alert motorists.

“At the end of the day, we are responsible — as a county government, as elected officials — to our constituents,” Adams said. “VDOT is responsible — in my opinion — to the people who use the roads. There seems to be a lot of distancing from the whole issue from VDOT’s standpoint. I don’t think that’s helpful.”

Adams shared there was a desire from the county to release a press release on June 10; when VDOT responded with adjustments to the press release, Adams said the need to communicate with concerned residents was more important.

“The lack — in my opinion, from my seat — the lack of urgency, the lack of responsiveness; we need to do better,” Adams said, citing Route 33 is one of the five major roads in Louisa being shut down with only seven days’ notice.

Adams said the inability to communicate sooner with citizens created “additional heartburn that shouldn’t have been created.” He added that a timeline and duration of the summertime closure was discussed in an April meeting with VDOT, but no specific dates on the closure were given, and the county would have appreciated two to three weeks’ notice.

“I’m not happy about it,” Adams said. “My constituents aren’t happy about it…[local residents are asking] ‘can I get in and out of my house? Am I stuck for a month and a half?’ They shouldn’t be doing that. They shouldn’t have those questions.”

Simpson responded that moving forward, additional communication and procedures will be in place to make sure the miscommunication doesn’t happen again.