2006 Road bond projects on hold
Workers put finishing touches on a portion of Minnieville Road that has been widened.
Geoffrey Malloy sounded surprised when he heard plans to widen U.S. 1 in Woodbridge in front of his two car dealerships are on hold.
Since he purchased the Lincoln and Mercury dealerships at U.S. 1 and Reddy Drive 17 years ago, traffic congestion has been a problem that could keep potential customers away, he said.
“I think drivers avoid roads that are usually backed up … traffic has been bad out here for years,” said Malloy.
Prince William County officials Tuesday announced plans to halt the widening of U.S. 1 to a six-lane highway between Neabsco Mills and Featherstone roads as the county wrangles with record budget
shortfalls.
The highway expansion and 11 other projects were approved in 2006 after county residents voted to fund them with up to $300 million in road bonds.
Three of the outlined projects, including widening Va. 28 between Linton Hall Road and Va. 234, constructing Heathcote Boulevard, and widening Old Carolina Road, were completed.
Additional construction is under way on road bond projects, including widening U.S. 1 in Triangle, widening Va. 28 in Bristow and extending University Boulevard to Sudley Manor Drive. Those projects are
expected to be completed as scheduled, county officials said.
Additionally, Prince William Parkway will be widened between Old Bridge and Hoadly roads, paid for with $9.1 million in federal stimulus money.
But once those projects are finished, “significant construction on [county] roads will cease,” county documents stated.
Though voters approved officials to borrow up to $300 million for road construction, Carl Hampton with the Prince William County Official Financial Planning said it would have been a poor financial decision
for the county to borrow the entire amount at once.
“For example, if you are doing improvements to your home and you are authorized by your bank for a loan, you’re not going to withdraw $300 million if all you need is $500 for some two-by-fours,” said
Hampton.
To date, the county has borrowed 32 percent — $96.08 million — of the money voters in 2006 approved for road construction, said Hampton.
Included in that figure is $21.05 million Prince William borrowed from the Virginia Resources Authority, a state agency charged with helping localities fund cost-effective transportation solutions, among
other things.
The remainder of the funds was borrowed in the form of general obligation bonds, said Hampton.
Making tough choices
Prince William County’s road bond program was once hailed as a local jurisdiction’s solution to its own transportation woes.
In the current trying budget times, however, Prince William County Board Chair Corey A. Stewart, R-At large, said it just makes sense to halt transportation projects.
“There are a lot of localities facing problems across the nation, and when it comes to slowing the process of road projects — when we factor in other portions of the budget like schools, public safety, and
others — the road projects take a back seat,” said Stewart.
Prince William Supervisor John D. Jenkins, D-Neabsco, said the state needs to do more when it comes to bailing Prince William residents out of gridlock.
“It is the state’s responsibility to build roads, not ours, and the General Assembly needs to come up with a better plan to fund road construction,” said Jenkins.
In 1988, Prince William voters approved the first road bond and began constructing some of their own roads. That first bond funded construction of the first phase of Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge.
Since then, voters approved bonds to widen Spriggs, Minnieville, Linton Hall and Wellington roads, to extend Prince William Parkway to U.S. 1, and construct Sudley Manor Drive, among others.
Recent growth
U.S. 1 in Woodbridge experienced rapid growth during the past 10 years with the addition of several housing communities south of Cardinal Drive.
With an influx of people and cars on the road, keeping local transit buses running on time has become an increasingly difficult task.
“We are going to have to deal with even greater roadway congestion, which has a slowing effect on our operation as we try to move people from point A to point B,” said Alfred H. Harf, director of the
Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission.
Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.
2006 Road bond projects on hold
-Widen U.S. 1, between Featherstone and Neabsco Mills roads
2009 Projected cost: $51.5 million
-Widen Rollins Ford Road, between Vint Hill Road and Songsparrow Drive
2006 Projected cost: $19.46 million
-Widen Minnieville Road, between Spriggs Road and Va. 234
2006 Projected cost: $22.3 million
Past road bond projects
1988
-Prince William County Parkway
-Route 234 Bypass
-I-66/Va. 234 interchange
1990
-Safety improvements to Davis Ford Road
-Prince William County Parkway extension
1994
-Cardinal Drive
-Liberia Avenue extension
-Ashton Avenue
-Old Bridge Road improvements
1998
-Ridgefield Road
-Prince William Parkway extension
-Spriggs Road
-Linton Hall Road
-Wellington Road
-Infrastructure at Innovation@Prince William technology park
2002
-Minnieville Road, between Caton Hill and Old Bridge roads
-Minnieville Road, between Cardinal and Spriggs roads
-U.S. 15 (James Madison Highway)
-Benita Fitzgerald Drive
-Sudley Manor Drive
-PW Parkway Intersection with Old Bridge
-PW Pkwy Intersection with Minnieville Road
-U.S. 1 improvements
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Reader Reactions
miss mannerless
I believe there are many who are also wondering….
vmj: Don’t know. Another poster
on Chamber issue stated that County
Attorney has expressed no wrongdoing
for any elected official in PWC.
Does this also apply to ethics????
Just wondering….tired over-taxed
citizen…..Does a staff member
have the final say, such as County
Attorney, if this is true?????
Again, just wondering….
miss mannerless
This bike path just wasn’t fiscally responsible to us.
We wondered who was being ‘stroked’....
vmj:
Thanks for info involving nonsensible
bike path at Parkway and Brentsville
Road. Could it be that “planners”
don’t know where this is, or are
they “hiding something” from us.
Transportation (2nd in command)
did not know where Lucasville Road
was, although entrance to Parkway
was supposed to be there and a very
bad curve straightened out, but
sellers of property and developers
“won again”.....
As we speak, before planning commission
for housing to be built for new road
to remove from rural crescent (Vint Hill)
Could it be too much “self interest”
making decisions, whether staff or
elected????? Just wondering how road
improvement and more housing will
help anyone, other than those interested??????
Thanks for nothing Gov. Kaine.
Tee hee. All this Repub talk…anti-Obama stuff. Yet, I see stimulus money is going to be used for widening roads in PWC.
What does this “stimulate’? Speed?
I have supported Corey Stewart for a long time but he just lost my vote. These politicians just don’t get it. What affects every resident of PWC adversely? Traffic and inadequate roads! What do you do to alienate the voters? Tell them there is no money for roads. If one, just one politician would follow through on the endless outright lies they make on improving transportaion around here ,he or she would have my vote for life.
LOL - National Geographic Magazine posted a picture wayyyy back in the late 1960’s of the Rt.1 corridor through the heart of Woodbridge. The picture was in response to show how badly the country had needed the interstate system. Yes, the photo displayed, basically showed how bad traffic was all the way back then. And of course, it was the same as it is now…four lanes. What a joke, 40 years later and not one lane has been added to Rt.1 through the area and yet its new project has been put on hold. This examplifies the blatant and gross irresponsability of our government. Forty years people. I want my money back, ha.
Unexcusable…revolt!
I guess it was a tough decision to add a bike path at the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Brentsville Road. Who were they appeasing with this one?
Anyone familiar with the area knows this is not an easy bike path to construct. Lots of excavation, tree removal, filling and leveling a far distance from simply laying asphalt on level ground.
What in the world would possess them to put in a bike path in this economic climate? You’ve got to question the lack of prudence. Sheer stupidity!
This money would have been better use for anything else in my opinion, but no one was asking me….
That’s right, Hilda Barg is to blame for the explosive growth on Rt 1 with no road improvements. I actually wrote her about this and she told me that the new growth would not adversely affect travel on Route I south. The planning commission gave its blessings to all the growth also. Now she is gone and I am stuck in RT1 south traffic every night trying to get home.
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