Ask Axios: When the Dominion street barriers downtown are coming down

Question: "I’d love to know what’s going on with the fence and barriers around the Dominion demolition site downtown. They have had one lane blocked for several years now and it causes a big traffic issue at 5pm," says reader Christopher C.

• Also, "why is the city letting them keep these streets blocked?" he adds.

Answer: Dominion is planning a "clean energy park" for the space at 700 E. Canal St., which will include EV charging stations, walking paths and an open park.

Construction is slated to begin later this year and wrap up by the end of next year. And those barriers will stay in place until it's done, Craig Carper, a Dominion spokesperson, tells Axios.

• The city did not respond to a request for comment.

Catch up quick: Dominion imploded its former downtown headquarters at One James River Plaza in May 2020 to prepare for a pair of twin office towers. That’s when barricades went up.

It scrapped those plans a year later because of the shift to remote work before announcing plans for the clean energy park.

• The announcement was met with criticism from some local groups, including Partnership for Smarter Growth, which argued the park is little more than a surface parking lot and is in conflict with the city's master plan for greater density, WRIC reported.