Bedford’s Roads Reflect State’s Indifference

The news the Virginia Department of Transportation had for the Bedford County Board of Supervisors earlier this month was anything but good. It also puts an accent mark on Virginia’s critical need for a fresh infusion of money for the maintenance of roads and highways throughout the state.
What the supervisors learned is that the new fiscal year beginning July 1 will bring a more than 40 percent reduction in money for secondary roads over the next six years. That would slash Bedford’s portion of money for unpaved roads to about $150,000 — enough maybe to pave one road in that time span.
That’s enough to make Bedford the poster child of Virginia’s highway maintenance needs. It’s a pathetic legacy that the leadership of the Virginia General Assembly has left for the fastest growing county west of Richmond.
For years, the county has maintained a list of nearly 40 unpaved secondary roads waiting to get added to the six-year plan for road improvements. But Bob Sutton, the county’s residency administrator for VDOT told the supervisors the other day that money for such projects as paving unpaved roads has all but dried up.
A reduction of more than 40 percent over the next six years means that maybe one unpaved road could get a coating of tar and gravel. The drastic cut also means that the 15 projects scheduled for completion over the six years will be cut in half.
“If you do the math,” Sutton said, “it would take 120 years to pave all those roads.”
Sutton was clearly unhappy about the news he offered the supervisors. “I can’t tell you how much this disturbs me in meeting growing needs of the county,” he said. “It’s very frustrating for us and I’m sure for you, too.”
The pitiful prospects for road improvements in Bedford — along with other rural counties in Central Virginia — is not something that occurred overnight. State legislators have seen it coming for years, but have done little or nothing about it.
Sutton confirmed that when he said state funding for secondary, primary and urban roads has been on the decline over the past 10 years. A decade ago, he said, Bedford had $1 million to spend on unpaved roads each year. Now it’s around $200,000.
Even with those sums of yesteryear, the county has not made much progress toward paving its unpaved roads. More than 25 percent of the county’s 900 miles of secondary roads is unpaved. That’s 250 miles of roads on which traffic spews dust during dry spells and mud during extended wet weather.
Annie Pollard, the Montvale supervisor whose district in the western end of the county has the most unpaved roads, said she believes the state has forgotten rural areas when it comes to transportation. “The state has really let us down,” she said.
She offered one solution — write to state legislators and let them know about the road needs in Bedford and ask them what they are going to do about it. “We have to let people in the state know that’s (the unpaved roads and other canceled projects) unacceptable.”
Bedford’s road maintenance needs make a special legislative session on state transportation more imperative than ever. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is expected to call such a session for later this spring.
As many of the folks in Bedford know, the transportation system needs new revenues to keep pace with the needs not only there, but all across the state. The most logical place to find those revenues is an increase in the state gasoline tax, something that hasn’t happened in 22 years. The Assembly has put that off now for several years. It can’t afford to wait any longer.