Secondary road proposals to garner further discussion

By JIM LAWRENCE
FOR THE STAFFORD COUNTY SUN
Published: May 1, 2008

STAFFORD — At the April 15 meeting of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, the Secondary Six-Year Improvement Program — a six-year plan for secondary road improvements in Stafford County — was presented by Transportation Administrator Fulton deLamorton.

Discussion on local secondary roads will again be a board topic at the upcoming May 6 board meeting.

Increased population in the region has caused congestion and safety issues on roads that were built when the county was very rural in nature. Several of those areas are on the list for improvement.

Of 13 projects originally, deLaMorton in his background report in the board’s minutes, only two of these projects have actually been funded: a widening project of Garrisonville Road in the area of Joshua Road, and Courthouse Road from Cedar Lane to Winding Creek Road.

Only one of them was dropped: a connector road, tentatively called “Andrew Chapel Road-New,” which would connect Courthouse and Brooke roads on the east side of the CSX railroad.

Stafford County Supervisor Paul Milde, R-Aquia said he feels the connector road is too important to drop from the list.

At the last board meeting, the board voted by a margin of 5-2 to drop it from the list of projects, as recommended by the Stafford County Planning Commission. Milde implored his fellow board members not to drop it.

At a meeting of the planning commission March 19, Commissioner Cecilia Kirkman of the Griffis-Widewater District moved that the project be removed from the SSYP.

“It has now ballooned to over $11 million and the stated purpose of the new road is to increase access to VRE but based on other considerations there can only be an additional 200 commuter slots added to VRE so we are paying over $50,000 per commuter for a little used road,” she said, according to meeting records.

She further stated at the meeting that there were “CMAQ funds that were being requested, which are CMAQ funds that could be applied to traffic flow at the Falmouth intersection and she thought that would be a much better use of [those] funds,” according to the minutes.

Her motion passed by a vote of 4-3, with commissioners Ken Mitchell, Aquia District; Michael Rhodes, Garrisonville District; and Gordon Howard, Rock Hill District, dissenting.

Milde said he feels that VRE is only one reason the road needs improvement.

“A railroad bridge there with low clearance makes access difficult for fire and rescue vehicles,” he said, stating that the department has to purchase vehicles that can negotiate it. Were vehicles needed from surrounding units in some cases, this would have to be taken into account.”

He cited, also, the future Crow’s Nest State Park, which will increase in traffic flow to that facility.

Another issue is traffic that travels Brooke Road from both Fredericksburg and King George counties.

“Projected traffic on this road is expected to increase to levels that the road cannot accommodate by 2015,” said Milde.

Further, residents of Andrew Chapel Road experience difficulty in getting in and out of their own driveways at certain times of the day at the present volume levels.

Milde said: “The VRE is in the process of acquiring land that will increase parking by 335 to 375 spaces,” creating three times the capacity of present.

Milde said that VRE ridership will continue to grow. He cited a 4 percent growth between March 2007 and March 2008. Since its inception, he said, ridership has steadily increased except for one year in which it “flatlined” at no change.

When making his case at the April 15 board of supervisors’ meeting, he stated to fellow members, “I’m not asking you to fund it.  Just keep it on the list.”

A public hearing on the issue will be heard at the May 6 meeting of the board of supervisors.

Jim Lawrence is a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun. Reach him at .