STAFFORD — Many of Stafford County’s two-lane rural roads date back 70 years, with narrow lanes, no shoulders, and sharp curves.
Now county residents will have the opportunity to authorize the Stafford Board of Supervisors to borrow cash to fix some of them. Supervisors voted to move forward with a plan to hold a referendum on the November ballot that, if approved, would allow officials to borrow up to $70 million for transportation fixes.
With the Board’s approval, County Administrator Thomas Foley will petition the circuit court in order to get the referendum on the ballot. The court must approve it by August in time for the November 5 General Election.
County officials determined that the county would need a $50 million to $70 million bond in order to pay for the road projects that could take nearly a decade to construct. The total cost for the transportation projects are said to be $180 million, but officials hope to receive funding help from the state.
“The larger dollar amount we go the more concerned I am,” George Washington District Supervisor Tom Coen said. “I’m already concerned about our county’s debt.”
Tuesday afternoon, supervisors moved forward with the road bond and picked a plan that includes improvements to:
- Shelton Shop Road
- Garrisonville Road
- Layhill and Morton Road
- Leeland Road
- Onville Road
- Mountain View Road
- Route 1/Enon intersection
- Road widening
The road improvement plan leaves out both White Oak Road and Butler Road which were both listed as roads that needed to be expanded. Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1) will not receive any improvements either.
“I advocated for a road bond last year,” Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton said. “There’s not one damn road on the big list in the Aquia District.”
The transportation project will also pay for road widenings on most of the other back roads in Stafford. Supervisors cite the need for road widenings and claim that road widenings will make the already narrow back roads safer.
If approved, county officials will be authorized to borrow the cash to fix the identified roads. They’ll have 10 years to do so, and Supervisors won’t violate any agreement if they aren’t able to complete the entire list, or decide not to borrow some or all of the money.
The county recently paid for a year-long, internal county study that wrapped up in January which took an in-depth look at county streets, ranking them from best to worst. The study looked at crash rates, the amount of traffic, and current infrastructure conditions, like pavement and shoulder width.
County staff and supervisors would need to develop an engagement plan to communicate information related to the projects and the proposed bond referendum. The engagement plan would come back to the Board for approval on August 20.
“I think the residents of Stafford County deserve to vote on the biggest problem within our county,” Garrisonville Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer said. “This is the most important thing we will deal with all year.”
Dudenhefer’s 17-year-old daughter, Emily, was killed in 2004 after her car, which was driven by her friend, swerved off of Mountain View Road and struck a tree.
In 1988, when its population was just less than half of what it is today, Prince William County grew tired of waiting for the state to approve a $110 million road construction of Prince William Parkway. The state only allocated $8 million to the state per year in 1988. The Prince William Board of Supervisors came up with a radical idea at the time: funding the roads themselves.
Back then, VDOT was primarily responsible for building and maintaining virtually every stop sign, speed bump, and freeway.
The county held a referendum where voters approved of the road bond that was used to fund the construction of Prince William Parkway. Officials in that county, which has a population twice the size of Stafford, are considering placing a $600 million parks and transportation bond on the November ballot.
A total of $400 million of it would be used to widen roads, build new interchanges, and add new pedestrian and safety improvements.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors will hold a work session regarding the road bond on July 2 before the start of the 3 p.m. meeting.
