Highway projects advance

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Spotsylvania County supervisors OK public-private partnership deal for work on nine roads.

Date published: 7/13/2006

By GEORGE WHITEHURST

Plans are edging forward for improvements to nine of Spotsylvania County's secondary roads--including Harrison and Smith Station roads.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday authorized county staff to negotiate a preliminary design contract for the projects with Spotsylvania County Infrastructure, LLC. The company is a consortium made up of Northern Virginia-based Shirley Contracting, LLC, and contractor W.C. English. Other team players include the engineering firms of Dewberry, and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The group had submitted a proposal for widening and improving the nine secondary roads under the state Public Private Transportation Partnership Act. The act is intended to streamline road construction by tapping private-sector dollars.

SCI submitted its PPTA proposal to the county in January.

Clark Bottner with Shirley Contracting expressed satisfaction yesterday that the process is now moving forward.

"We can't say how excited we are and appreciate what the board did," he said.

Money for design and construction of the road projects will come from the $144 million worth of transportation bonds approved last year by Spotsylvania voters. The county recently sold $15 million worth of the bonds.

Describing himself as "bullish" on the projects, Board of Supervisors Chairman Hap Connors is pleased that the process is now moving forward after months of discussion among the supervisors and county staff. He's also pleased the county is using the PPTA structure for the nine road projects.

"I think, after listening to various alternatives, it was time to go with the alternative contracting mechanism that gives us a better, smarter, faster and maybe cheaper alternative to building the old way," he said yesterday. "It's been almost nine months since the voters approved the bonds, and it's time to move."

County staff now will negotiate a contract with SCI for the preliminary design work, which will include both a fixed price for the projects and definitive construction timetable. The supervisors will have to approve the contract.

Assuming they do, SCI can begin collecting data--including vehicle counts, and the county's growth and development patterns--in order to develop solutions for unclogging the congested roads.

"It's done in a very open way," Bottner said. "You also have to look into the future, and say, 'What is the plan for this road? Is it going to stay residential? Is it going to be high-density, low-density?' You've got to come up with something that has some [life] length to it."

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Date published: 7/13/2006