The intersection of Thirteenth Street and Virginia Avenue will soon become a four-way stop.

Roanoke Rapids police Chief Shane Guyant said it could be at least a month before the intersection is transformed due to making sure no underground lines are disturbed in the process.

Roanoke Rapids City Council approved the chief’s request at its meeting Tuesday.

In his request for the four-way stop, Guyant wrote that Virginia Avenue between Julian R. Allsbrook Highway and East Tenth Street has been the site of numerous unsafe traffic issues, especially speeding and reckless driving. “The police department has received numerous complaints from citizens who live in the area about the unsafe traffic conditions,” Guyant wrote. “Many drivers use this corridor to speed through the neighborhoods to get from one main road to the other.”

The police chief said today from January 1 of last year to March 1 of this year there have been 19 citations written for various motor vehicle offenses in and around the Virginia Avenue area as well as one motor vehicle collision.

“It is the consensus of both the police department and the public works department that the establishment of a four-way stop intersection at Thirteenth Street and Virginia Avenue would be the best and safest way to improve the traffic safety on this section of Virginia Avenue,” Guyant wrote in his request.