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ROAD PROJECTS SLOW TO START NEW SCHEDULE

January 4, 2009 12:36 am

By DAN TELVOCK

The road-building business has not been a smooth one for the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors.

A 2005 bond referendum asked voters if the county should borrow up to $144 million to improve all or a portion of more than 18 roads and build a Virginia Railway Express station. The voters approved the bonds, but there has been very little new pavement laid, and there is no VRE station.

Spotsylvania officials recently informed nearly 7,000 households by letter that the first phase of projects has been delayed because of problems with environmental permits, acquiring private property necessary to make the improvements, and relocating utilities.

Work once dominated by the Virginia Department of Transportation is now being undertaken by local governments in partnership with the private sector.

What they are quickly learning is that it's not easy.

"I guess we went through a learning curve," said Rebecca Golden, Spotsylvania's director of capital projects management.

Since the 2005 bond referendum, the county has built one new elementary school, Patriot Park, and an addition to Salem Church Library is expected to be finished early this year. Three new fire stations have been built with bond money from a 2001 referendum.

But the road projects have been slow going.

Golden said one key difference is that the county has to acquire private property to start the road projects. She said it is difficult to predict when private property needed for a road project can be acquired.

In October 2007, the Board of Supervisors approved a two-phase plan with a private firm, Spotsylvania County Infrastructure, to design and improve nine of the roads listed on the referendum.

Most of the first phase is intersection improvements, which Golden said are a high priority based on what residents said at community meetings and on the costs.

"They are high-accident locations, so it will make them safer and much less congested and more efficient," Golden said.

Dan Kelch, who lives on Harvest Lane, said the intersection improvements at Gordon and Chancellor roads are necessary because of gridlock during rush hour.

"When they were first doing the advertising and [supervisors] were politicking to try and get that bond pushed through, they were telling us they were going to get it done before the state can, and the state was saying we will have it done by the fall of 2008," Kelch said.

Supervisor Jerry Logan said the county is still dependent on VDOT to approve road designs and engineering, which can pose problems.

"Sometimes, through the process of a project, they will change their standards in midstream, which is extremely frustrating because then you have to go back and redesign it," Logan said.

When the referendum was held, supervisors said a 10-cent tax increase might be needed to complete the projects. But supervisors have been unwilling to increase taxes to get the road projects done faster.

Supervisor Hap Connors said the General Assembly has failed to come up with solutions to the transportation quagmire, and that forces local governments to find their own funding and do the work.

"The rules and regulations are quite cumbersome, and I think the lack of leadership at the state level to resolve statewide funding issues is very problematic," he said. "I think VDOT really needs to review its mission and then organize accordingly."

Harry Lee, VDOT's assistant district administrator for engineering, compared the road-building business to a football game. There are 22 players on the field, and any one of them can win or lose the game. The engineering of roads hasn't changed much, but managing the process has, he said.

"You've got to put all these pieces together at the same time to make things happen," he said. "It is an issue that the average person doesn't understand because they don't deal with it. It isn't an easy business."

Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com