Lori Graham
Contributing Writer
Virginia Department of Transportation’s David Clarke presented current projects completed and ongoing in Montgomery County by transportation personnel at the Board of Supervisors meeting, Wednesday, Nov. 15.
A big project occurring this time of year is in the removal of carcasses from roads. Crews continue to remove deceased deer from areas throughout the County and will continue to incorporate additional crews in keeping an eye on the situation during the Thanksgiving holiday. Additionally, the department has been completing some machining work on gravel roads, pipe replacement, patch work, and ditching on several roads in the County, Clarke said.
“I think I mentioned it last time, but we did complete the Royal Rustic Road Project, Craig Mountain Road, and working on the design, what will be the next project which is Taylor Hollow Road. Brush cutting on Centennial, started doing some grading work on Taylor Hollow, because we were starting to look at how to address that curve,” he said.
There will be more pothole patching on Indian Valley Road, Fairview Church Road, and North Fork in Mount Pleasant. The VDOT team is also working on preparing for winter weather this coming season.
Questions from County Supervisors led to a discussion on a variety of road concerns within the districts of the County.
District C Supervisor Steve Fijalkowski indicated previous conversations concerning the proposal of a reduction in speed limit on Craig Mountain Road, and specifically a speed study that was to be conducted.
“It’s in process right now,” Clarke said. “The results are not in yet.”
“Do we have just a rough estimate,” Fijalkowski said.
“Once they have the data which is what they’ve seem to have, it shouldn’t take long for the…I would guess, I mean, this is kind of a difficult year, difficult time of year to you know predict that kind of thing, but I would think by January,” said Clarke.
The railroad underpass on Den Hill Road allows for one-lane passage and a citizen has required about possible improvements for this difficult location, according to Fijalkowski. Convex mirrors has been used in these types of blind traffic areas, but that is not a typical method for VDOT, Fijalkowski verified with Clarke.
Supervisor Todd King with District D followed up with Clarke again concerning a traffic study at the Union Valley and Route 8 intersection in Riner, Virginia.
“I asked them about that, and I don’t have anything about that. I will keep prodding them for that,” Clarke said.
King also stated a large pothole on Tyler Road, near Stanley Road that needs attention as well as some ditching.
Supervisor Sara Bohn requested an update on the Millpoint drainage issue, in which Clarke said that this would be taken care of in the next couple of months.
Clarke explained that developed areas tend to produce more drainage, and VDOT cannot take care of those issues until it impacts the County-supported roadways.
“Entrance pipes are the responsibility of the property owners,” Clarke said. “What we were looking at is a solution, or at least to make it a little bit better, whereby if you have one of those, an entrance pipe with slots at the top, water would come down, it would go into the pipe from the top because there’s a slot on there, and then run off.”
VDOT would not be able to support this type of drainage management, but the County VDOT team is looking into ways for a solution.
“VDOT would still install it for free,” Bohn said.
“Yeah, we could that,” Clarke said.
Signage for children play areas like Nellies Cave Park and what was previously referred to as the Cheese Factory is in need, according to Bohn. Clarke confirmed that this is something that VDOT will permit or support the County in the installation of those signs.
Darrell Sheppard serves as Supervisor for District E and brought attention to some citizen complaints concerning an area of Glade Road that recently had culverts installed.
“It’s getting some bad potholes where they’ve just got the gravel,” Sheppard said.
Sheppard also requested an update on the status of Mount Zion Road and Long Shop areas where lines need to be painted on the roadways, as well as Sterling Road needing resurfacing.
