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[caption id="attachment_161166" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Rains that fell on December 4, 2020 led to a washout on Brooke Road in Stafford County. [Photo: Jason Pelt][/caption]

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors is considering holding off the land acquisition needed for an emergency access road for Brooke Road until the summer.

The county has been planning to create the access road as a means of travel when Brooke Road gets washed out by floodwater from Accokeek Creek. The plan requires the creation of a road that would connect Windermere Drive and Crestwood Lane.

Much of the area required for the road is private property and would require the county to acquire the land from its owners.

The reason given for this pause on the project came from a presentation made earlier in the meeting by Kyle Bates, the residency administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Bates laid out recent improvements that were made to the s-curve in Brooke Road, between Raven Road and Maplewood Drive.

According to Bates, VDOT has replaced drainage pipes and installed a well with a pump to remove water from the roadside ditch without interfering with traffic. The pavement was also overlaid with asphalt to raise the road surface six inches.

While these improvements aren't expected to fix the problem permanently, Board members, especially Aquia District Supervisor Monica Gary, who campaigned on the issue last year, want to see if the new maintenance will show results in alleviating the worst issues that would require the access drive. VDOT reported that the improvements held up well against last week's rains, and the road didn't have to be closed.

According to county documents, the emergency access path on Brooke Road will cost over $1.5 million. The county would be reimbursed for some of the construction costs by VDOT to the tune of $750,000. This is separate from the main project that raises the S-curve by five feet which would prevent the road from getting washed out by the floodwaters.

The S-curve raising project will cost $7.5 million, with all funding coming from the county. Stafford County is seeking $4.8 million in grant funding from FEMA to offset costs. Richmond-based Timmons Group has been commissioned by the county to design the elevated S-curve. The whole project is estimated to be completed in five years.

The constant flooding of Brooke Road has been a source of aggravation for the county, which cuts off 450 households when the road is closed to traffic and leaves those residents with no way in or out of the area. Brooke Road has been closed 18 times over the last four years due to flooding. The worst came in 2020 when it was closed eight times.

The county anticipates that once the land acquisition is needed for the emergency road is complete, construction will begin in Spring 2023 and be finished by the end of 2023.