Road woes

By Hannah Wever
Review Staff Writer

Published: July 3, 2008

Local officials took to the streets recently to get a better feel of the state of secondary roads in the county.
Budget cuts at the state level resulted in fewer dollars for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to devote to improvements to secondary roads that criss-cross the county. The long list of scheduled road projects was shortened; the direst work was placed in top priority. Less pressing projects were moved down to the end of the list.
The total amount allocated to secondary unpaved roads prior to budget cuts for 2009 through 2014 totaled $1,266,780. Following the budget cuts, that figure shrank to $474,812.
There’s only so much money to go around, so supervisors wanted to be sure their districts’ trouble spots were on that list.
“What we were doing was looking at the roads in the six-year plan that we might want to move around,” Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Johnson explained.
Armed with map and a copy of the six-year secondary road plan, supervisors set out to determine precisely which roads were in the worst shape. Supervisors toured travelways with VDOT officials to be sure the top projects in their districts were properly prioritized on VDOT’s list of planned improvements.
District 4 Supervisor Teri Pace said the field trip was beneficial.
“It was a really good trip,” Pace said. “I think (VDOT officials) made a real concerted effort to focus on our dirt roads.”
Two roads in her area, Route 602 (Old Office Road) and Route 603 (Indiantown Road) had been the source of a host of complaints from constituents, Pace said.
According to Pace, Route 602 is one of the longest stretches of unpaved roads in the entire county. Residents have requested paving for high-traffic portions of the road, voicing concerns about the thick clouds of dust that form after cars pass through.
Routes 602 and 603, Pace said, have now been added to secondary road six-year schedule for improvements. But it may be a while before funding becomes available to dispatch paving crews to routes 602 and 603.
“They’re really expensive to pave, but once they’re paved upkeep is a lot easier,” Pace said.
At the top of the list of the county’s 2008-2009 six-year plan, were reconstruction of Route 643 in Gordonsville, reconstruction and surface treatment of Route 619 near routes 624 and 692, and pavement overlay, shoulder stone and pavement marking on Route 615 near the Orange town limits. The remainder of the list includes about 30 additional projects, ranging from widening and surfacing of specific stretches, to county-wide traffic calming and engineering.
Secondary road improvement projects that will be delayed as a result of budget cuts include grading, drainage and surface treatments on portions of Route 619 (Sunnyside Road) and Route 606 (Catharpin Road). Completion of a widening and paving project previously slated for a portion of Route 612 (Monrovia Road) will also be delayed, according to VDOT.