Dumfries to lower speed limit on Possum Point Road

For the past two months, an average of 150 to 160 dump trucks a day have been traveling down the narrow and often winding Possum Point Road in Dumfries on their way to unload dirt at the Dominion Virginia power plant.

With the procession of trucks expected to continue for at least another couple of months, Dumfries is taking steps to slow them down.

"The road was not designed to handle this kind of traffic," said Dumfries Town Manager Dave Whit-low.

"We're concerned for the citizens who drive down there. We are concerned for the residents who live there and whose driveways come out onto Possum Point Road," he said. "It's a safety con-cern."

The Dumfries Town Council recently voted to reduce the speed limit along the 3/4-mile portion of Pos-sum Point Road, beginning at the intersection of U.S. 1 to the town limit. The rest of the road that ends at the power plant is within Prince William County's jurisdiction.

Within the town's portion of the road, the speed limit has been lowered from 35 miles per hour to 25 mph. New speed limit signs were put up this week. The speed limit along the rest of the road remains 35 mph.

Additionally, Whitlow said that Dumfries Police officers have begun routine patrols of Possum Point Road -- with their radar detectors -- to ensure that the dump truck drivers are not exceeding the speed limit. There also will be periodic safety spot checks of the vehicles.

"We will do anything we can do to make it safer," Whitlow said.

The impact on the road of the heavy truck traffic is also being taken into consideration. The town moved up a shoul-der improvement and strengthening project of Possum Point Road by two years. That work should get underway soon.

Reducing the speed limit also should help the road situation, Whitlow said. "By slowing traffic down, you reduce the wear and tear on the road and that also makes it safer," he said.

The town is not the only entity addressing road damage and safety, said Uwe Kirste, environmental services division chief in Prince William County's Department of Public Works.

The town, the county, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the trucking company have made arraignments to address possible road damage, Kirste said.

"[Additionally,] G.D.C. has already fired five people for speeding. They are not waiting for the town or the county police to go down there and check for speed," Kirste said.

The truck traffic is part of an agreement between the county and G.D.C. Inc, a trucking and construction company based in Woodbridge.

G.D.C. has agreed to repair a slope in the Newport Estates community off of Neabsco Road where a landslide oc-curred last March.

"G.D.C. will do the work -- not for cash -- but for a certain amount of dirt disposal sites," Kirste said.

In exchange for doing the work, the county has agreed to allow the company to unload some of its excess soil on county property such as the county landfill and Julie J. Metz Wetlands Bank off of Neabsco Road.

Also as part of the agreement, the county has identified other possible locations where G.D.C. might be able to unload dirt. That's how the power plant property at the end of Possum Point Road got involved, Kirste said.

Dominion Virginia was looking for 200,000 cubic yards of fill dirt.

"They had an area at the Possum Point power plant that they needed filled in so we gave G.D.C. a contact point there and G.D.C. has a contract to do some soil disposal there," Kirste said.

The county sent out letters to residents of Possum Point Road alerting them to the project that -- at the high-end of projections -- could take 12 to 18 months of dump truck traffic to complete.

"There is a finite amount of material that is going there. However fast or frequent the material can get there, that's how long the project is going to take," Kirste said.

Kirste said he does not think it will take 12 to 18 months.

In the two months since the trucks started running, about half of the 200,000 cubic yards have been depos-ited.

"A lot depends on the weather, on G.D.C.'s clients and on where the material is coming from. If the clients don't need material hauled away, then the effort stops for a while," Kirste said.

"The faster they come through now, the sooner they'll be done and they'll never come back," Kirste said.

Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached 703-878-8010.