Six years after being awarded a $776,000 Virginia Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant, Mathews County has finally received VDOT’s approval to request bids for construction of the first phase of a major Main Street improvement project.

The request for proposals appears in this week’s Gazette-Journal, as well as in a daily newspaper and various trade publications, said Mathews County Planning and Zoning Director John Shaw.

The project will include improvements to sidewalks, modifications to the parking layout and traffic flow, grading of the street, additional storm drains, and landscaping. 

Phase One will extend from Brickbat Road and the Bay School at the southernmost end to Mathews Insurance Agency and Food Lion at the northernmost end. Shaw said that a separate plan for improving sidewalks on Brickbat Road from Main Street to the park at Put-In Creek will be bid out at the same time in the hope that one contractor will do both projects.

According to th...