RICHMOND, Va. — Drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians passing through Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue are forced to slow down due to the city’s new “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper (LQC)” project.

White and yellow flexible posts alongside traffic-calming curb and median extensions jut out in the middle of the busy Northside intersection outside Linwood Holton Elementary.

This is one of several LQC projects designed by the Office of Equitable Transit and Mobility (OETM), a division within the Department of Public Works (DPW), in response to traffic safety concerns across the city.

The lane changes come after the city removed the A.P. Hill Confederate statue in 2022 from the middle of the busy intersection.

Richmond Public Schools Safe Routes to Schools Coordinator Tara Fitzpatrick said that, with and without the statue, the intersection was one of the most dangerous in the city.

“There was an average of 28 crashes per year and 8 injury crashes per year in the five years before the removal of the A.P. Hill statue in late 2022. In the one full year of data after removal, there were 8 total crashes and 4 injury crashes, a 71% reduction in crashes that can be attributed to the removal of the statue,” according to an intersection study prepared for the city.

Fitzpatrick said, based on local crash data, there haven’t been any crashes reported at the intersection so far this year.