Road work

 

On Tuesday July 2, the Goochland Board of Supervisors held a transportation workshop led by County Engineer Austin Goyne.

Setting priorities for transportation projects—Goochland relies on VDOT to build and maintain its roads—is vital to secure funding from a bewildering array of governmental sources. Goochland competes with other locations throughout Virginia for state road dollars. As a small county, it is vital for Goochland to justify funding requests in terms of their local and regional importance.

The county has had success in securing funding for projects including the realignment of Hockett and Ashland Roads, which has been on the radar screen for at least 11 years. A four-lane diverging diamond with a second Ashland Road bridge over I64, and a roundabout to mitigate the dangerous malfunction of the westbound off ramp at Oilville Road also are fully funded. While we’d all like to wave a magic wand to complete these projects instantly, road building is a lengthy and complicated process, that moves at glacial speed.

Goyne said that the next step in the Ashland Road/I64 interchange project, the county’s “number one transportation priority”, is public engagement. An online survey, which runs from July 2 to 15 (https://publicinput.com/i64-ashlandrd_alternatives) seeks input from citizens. Please take the time to share your thoughts. Construction of this project is expected to begin June 2028 for completion in 2031.

The Hockett Road realignment project, whose public hearing was held on June 11, with construction expected to start in May 2028. The signalized intersection of Hockett and Broad Street Roads will remain unchanged.

Funds to build the Oilville Road/I64 westbound ramp roundabout were awarded by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) on June 18. Project design is underway. Construction must begin by October 2026 and is currently on track to meet this deadline.

The design of the Fairground Road extension, to connect to Rt 6, is in progress. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.

Goyne explained that the county is always looking for funding sources for other projects in the transportation queue. To secure these dollars, specific projects must be identified and prioritized, and the supervisors must approve resolutions of support before they can be submitted for consideration by various state agencies.

Virginia uses a mechanism called “Smart Scale” to allocate scarce road dollars. (Go to https://smartscale.virginia.gov/ for details.) This process includes competitive rounds and criteria for selecting those projects worthy of funding.

Goochland submits projects for each funding cycle. The July 2 Board meeting agenda included a resolution of support for the current Smart Scale submission including a roundabout at the intersection of Fairground and Maidens Road; further improvements to the 288/250 interchange; a southbound auxiliary lane on Rt. 288; and a hard shoulder running lane on Rt. 288 south.

A study of West Creek Area Transportation Access, which began earlier this year, will test the major thoroughfare plan and determine if it needs to be amended. Its public survey drew 1,337 comments from 997 respondents, which Goyne contended was robust response. A working group that met on June 26 identified top issues—no surprise—as safety, speeding, congestion, and proper future planning. Completion of this study is expected in 2025.

Building a sidewalk along the west side of River Road West in Courthouse Village between Reed Marsh behind the library and Goochland Cares scored very low in the funding sweepstakes. Projected cost to install the approximately half mile of sidewalk is $1,696,329, approximately $642.54 per linear foot.

Goyne said that federal funds are available for this project but require a 50 percent match from the locality. He suggested that $960k currently earmarked in the capital improvement plan (CIP) for the first phase of the East End trail system be transferred to the sidewalk project, to be replaced by east end cash proffers.

The first phase of the East End Trail system, about 1.5 miles between the now defunct West Creek Medical Center and Hardywood Brewery roughly along the TCSD sewer right of way, which was allegedly fully funded and ready to begin construction before Covid, may never be built. VDOT grant funds for the project were returned after traversing wetlands required redesign, or something. Jonathan Lyle, District 5, suggested that it’s time to either make the East End Trail happen, or abandon it rather than waste staff time and other resources.

The county has retained the engineering firm of RK&K https://www.rkk.com/ to help craft a mechanism to identify and prioritize transportation projects. A proposed scoring scheme gives the following weights: safety 30 percent; congestion 20 percent; economic development access 20 percent; bike/pedestrian transit accessibility 10 percent; cost effectiveness 15 percent; and project readiness 5 percent. The goal is to figure out the benefit a particular project brings to the citizens and county following in-depth analysis with a Goochland specific grading system.

Goyne explained that the county chases many “pots of money” to fund transportation projects. Priorities for these projects are fluid and can be reordered depending on circumstances. During summer and fall of 2024 staff and RK&K will fine tune the criteria to rank projects. In December, a draft priority list will be presented to the supervisors and the final list in March 2025 to enable fall 2025 funding applications.

Rockville Road was next on the agenda. Highfield, a proposed 100 plus home subdivision on Rockville Road, just south of I64, rekindled concerns about the danger of this narrow winding road where seven crosses mark the location of traffic fatalities.

 As the 49 lot Tuckahoe Bridge North subdivision on Rockville Road nears completion area residents contend that its entrance has significant safety deficiencies including line of sight at the top of a blind hill. A recent serious accident there brought the issue into focus. Designed to accommodate traffic for 49 homes, Highfield’s proposed design could funnel far more vehicles through an already treacherous intersection.

Goyne said that line of sight and topography issues at the Tuckahoe Bridge North entrance as well as chronic speeding prompted a request to VDOT for a safety study, whose completion is expected around October.

If that study recommends simple mitigation with striping and signage, said Goyne, it’s a quick fix. Recommendations requiring additional construction are more complicated because funding sources will need to be identified.

Board Chair Charlie Vaughters, District 4, contended that road improvements cannot compensate for motorists, local and from outside Goochland, who far exceed speed limits and may be distracted or impaired. All the safety studies in the world cannot make people drive responsibly. He said that the Sheriff’s Office may need to be involved to address the speeding issue.

The Central Virginia Transportation Authority is considering issuing $300 million in bonds to fund regional transportation projects. The only project that Goochland might be eligible for funding from this initiative is the tunnel under 288 to reconnect Three Chopt Road by Drive Shack.

There are many unanswered questions about this, including any possible negative impact on Goochland’s “triple triple” bond rating. Other members of the CVTA, including the City of Richmond, have fiscal philosophies different from ours.

Neil Spoonhower, District 2, represents Goochland on the CVTA. He explained that it was launched to better compete with other regions in the state.  New taxes were put in place, a one percent sales tax and seven cents on every gallon of gas sold in the county. “I’m not thrilled about new taxes, but we have benefitted from about a hundred million dollars (in road funding) for the two million we contributed. I’ll take that pay off any day, but we probably won’t see much more because most of our regional projects have been funded.”

He contended that smaller localities in the CVTA including Goochland, Powhatan, New Kent, and Charles City will not see the same benefit from the bonding as Richmond and Chesterfield. “We’re pretty tight with the purse string around here and better for it.” Spoonhower speculated that the $300 million has already been spent.

There seemed to be consensus that the supervisors want more information about the bonding matter and potential adverse impacts on Goochland.  

To listen to the entire session, visit the “watch county meetings” tab on the county website https://www.goochlandva.us/.