Supervisors approve resolution prohibiting thru trucks on Old Union, Charles City Road

An issue of truck traffic that has plagued the western portion of Charles City County since 2019 reached a resolution Tuesday evening after a vote by county leaders.

Charles City County Supervisors voted unanimously to prevent thru truck traffic on both Charles City Road and Old Union Road during their monthly regular meeting.

In Oct. 2019, concerned residents living on Old Union Road voiced their displeasure about traffic of thru trucks utilizing the road for deliveries. The large trucks caused severe damage to the highway, as well as raised safety concerns due to the speed of the vehicles. The issue was echoed in Feb. 2020 as residents of Charles City Road also spoke about their concerns as restrictions on Old Union Road would divert traffic down that road.

But after the original thru truck restrictions were granted and approved by county leaders, County Administrator Michelle Johnson discovered that part of Charles City Road ran through Henrico County. Because of the hiccup, thru truck traffic could not be prevented on Charles City Road without a joint agreement with Henrico County. Originally, supervisors from Henrico turned down the notion to prevent thru truck traffic on the route, putting Charles City’s resolution on hold and forcing a temporary repeal. After months of work and research by staffs in both Henrico County and Charles City County, Henrico gave approval to limit thru truck traffic on their portion of Charles City Road.

Prior to the supervisors’ vote, county resident and truck driver Preston Adkins forewarned county leaders of a possible loophole in the ordinance based on the advertisement listed in the paper.

“A lot of the problem on those roads is poor visibility and the trees over the road,” he said. “Another problem you may encounter is that this prevents specifically oversized trucks.

“An oversized truck is anything that is over eight-foot wide,” Adkins added. “It has to be marked legally and I wanted to make the board aware of that.”

After no other speakers voiced their stance on the subject matter, supervisors voted 3-0 to prevent thru truck traffic on both Old Union Road and Charles City Road.