STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — “Immature,” “unfounded,” and “frivolous spending,” were some of the comments Mark Dudenhefer heard when he wanted to improve Stafford County’s antiquated roads.
In 2004, his 17-year-old daughter Emily was killed in a car crash on Mountain View Road. Nine years later, Stafford County celebrated the implementation of new road fixes following a $70 million voter-approved road bond passed in 2008. The very road on which Emily lost her life will be improved to help prevent others, including more than 400 student drivers at Mountain View High School, from being injured or killed in car crashes.
“This is not meant to be a sad day… this is a happy day for Stafford County because today we take a step forward out of the blame me, blame someone else for our problems, and we have now decided we are going to take charge…” said Dudenhefer.
Now a State Delegate representing portions of Stafford County and eastern Prince William, the Republican gathered with friends and county officials to break ground for improvements to the roadway to include wider 12-feet lanes and 8-feet shoulders.
A string of firsts, it’s the first major project of the county’s first road bond, and it’s the first time Stafford County residents have not waited for state help in fixing their own roads.
Following Emily’s death, a Youth Driver Taskforce convened for 21 meetings and identified roads in the county in need of improvement. All but one of them – U.S. 1 at the intersection of Potomac Creek Drive – were 2-lane roads that have not seen improvements since they were built in the early 20th century, despite Stafford’s ballooning population.
The road bond money will now be used to improve areas along Brooke, Eskimo Hill, Poplar, and Rock Hill Church roads.
On Mountain View Road – the largest of the improvements – the price tag will top $7 million and is expected to be completed next year.
Dudnehefer’s time serving on the Stafford Board of Supervisors was largely consumed with trying to advance transportation improvements in the county. He thanked some of the Supervisors he once worked with, and recalled some negative comments that strengthened his resolve.
“I had a former member of the Board of Supervisors that basically said that I was deranged and that all my views on the world were skewed because of an accident with my daughter, and while those comments hurt my feelings, it gave me more and more of a determination to move forward and step out and do something to try and help this community,” he said.
