Rockland Road, Old Oak Lane head county list for VDOT revenue sharing

Warren County has submitted a list of nine road improvement projects to the Virginia Department of Transportation for consideration in its annual revenue sharing program – except this time it will be a two-year allotment of state funding.

Okay, Guard Hill Rd. is not on either list (in fact, it’s looking pretty good along here) – but it was the only “country roads” photo I could find in my archives. File Photo/Roger Bianchini

According to the staff summary, projects selected for the VDOT matching funds in this cycle “will cover projects funded in FY 2018-2019 and FY 2019-2020.”

At the top of the Warren County list are:

1. $710,000 total ($355,000 county, $355,000 state) for a grade-separated crossing for Rockland Road;
2. a $998,250 total for Old Oak Lane Phase IV of a Rural Addition Project bringing a .44 of a mile section from gravel to minimum VDOT standards;
3. and a $150,000 total for pavement reconstruction and bike lane installation on a .6 mile stretch of Fishnet Boulevard – “Project would improve park entrance and allow for full-striping for bike/walking trail,” the staff summary states.

Also on the list in order of priority are Youngs Drive, Phase 2 ($484,550 total); T-Bird Drive, Phase 1 ($100,000); Grove Farm Road ($75,000); Blue Valley Road ($150,000); Old Oak Lane Phase V ($1,105,000); Crooked Run Boulevard ($10 million).

It was noted that the county would have no financial responsibility for the high-dollar Crooked Run Boulevard project, with the developer putting up the 50-percent local half of $5 million.  So, were all the County projects to be approved the total County Share would be $1,158,201 of a $3,772,800 total for the first eight projects.

VDOT’s Revenue Sharing Program commits state highway department matching funds on a 50/50 basis “for the construction, maintenance, or improvement or primary and secondary highways, as well as rural additions – the latter bringing local secondary roads up to minimum state standards.

This is better – past work on county roads through VDOT programs, including in the third picture below, work on Farm View Road in mid-October from its acceptance into the current fiscal year’s Rural Addition Program. Photos Courtesy WC Administrator Doug Stanley

Local funds “will be matched dollar for dollar up to $10,000,000” with VDOT anticipating “a total of $100 million available statewide” over the next two-year period.  It was noted in the October 17 staff summary of the applications that last year only Tier 1 projects were approved due to a what was termed a “lack of State funding”.  The amount of that statewide funding last year – $100 million.

With the same amount anticipated in the new two-year application cycle it may not bode well for the county’s hope VDOT will be able to reach beyond Tier 1, to Tier 2 and 3 projects for funding this time around.

Rural Additions

At its October 17 meeting the Warren County Board of Supervisors also approved a priority list for 34 roads to be added to its Rural Addition Program.  The staff summary noted that a multi-faceted criteria was utilized to determine the priority ranking.  Those include access from existing VDOT-maintained state roads; terrain, utility conflicts, drainage and environmental concerns, right-of-way availability, traffic counts and number of homes served, among others.

The 34 roads submitted for inclusion came from six developments, including three county sanitary districts – Shenandoah Farms, Lake Front Royal and Linden Heights – and three other independent subdivisions – Thunderbird Farms, Oak Ridge and Fairfield Acres.

The top 10 on the priority list are:

1. Lake Front Rd. (LFRSD):
2. Farmview Rd. (SFSD);

Recent work on Farmview Road

3. Old Oak Ln. Phase 4 (SFSD);
4. Young’s Dr. Phase 2 (SFSD);
5. T-Bird Dr. Phase 1 (Thunderbird Farms);
6. Grove Farm Rd. (Fairfield Acres);
7. Blue Valley Rd. Phase 1 (LHSD);
8. Old Oak Ln. Phase 5 (SFSD)
9. Lake Dr, Ohase 1 (SFSD);
10. Thunder Rd. Phase 1 (Thunderbird Farms)

For additional information on roads included visit the county website or call county administration at (540) 636-4600.