RICHMOND — State and county governments have been in a tug-of-war match for several years over who should pay for the maintenance of local roads.
Counties have added miles of roads with new residential communities and shopping centers, but they do not want to pay for maintenance and other road-related services like snow removal.
The counties say the state should continue paying for local road improvements, because the counties can’t fund the projects on their own.
The system works well for counties, but state officials have been pushing to hand over the responsibility to the counties as recently as 2007. And a state-sponsored study released last week may add fuel to the state’s proposal as Virginia struggles to find the money to maintain its roads into the future.
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration commissioned the George Mason University report titled “The Policy Options for Secondary Road Construction and Management in the Commonwealth of Virginia” that suggests the state give local governments the ability to raise taxes, so the localities can improve secondary roads, including streets in housing communities.
The report affirmed the poor condition of the secondary roads and said the state is not spending enough to meet the maintenance needs.
“The (road) system is getting bigger. Costs are being driven up. Some of the counties have become extremely large, like Fairfax and Loudoun. Into the future, should this system we’ve had in place for 80 years — Virginia was a very, very different place — should we continue doing what we’ve been doing?” asked state Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton.
The Virginia Department of Transportation pays to maintain local roads in every county, except Arlington and Henrico. Cities and towns pay for their own maintenance, but the state reimburses them for some of the costs. Virginia is among a handful of states, including North Carolina, that maintains local roads, and has been doing so since the Depression in the 1930s.
However, legislators want a long-term solution to reduce the backlog in secondary road work that will cost the state billions. This year, lawmakers approved the governor’s $4 billion transportation package, which is expected to pay for as many as 900 road, bridge and transit projects, including improvements to some secondary roads, over the next three years in an effort to clear a backlog of needed repairs and improvements.
The state spends about $400 million on secondary road maintenance — money that could go to other road work if the counties were to pick up the tab for local roads, Connaughton said.
But the secondary roads don’t meet state standards and need repairs frequently and more quickly. As counties approve new housing and commercial developments, builders put in new roads, which are then turned over to the state to pave, fix potholes, remove snow and address drainage problems, said Connaughton.
McDonnell administration officials want to hear feedback from legislators and municipalities about the report, completed by the university’s School of Public Policy, before moving forward, he said.
“I think we’re going to have a mixed bag,” said Connaughton of the reaction to the report. “It does seem … that no one is happy with the current system. The question is what we do about it.”
But Virginia counties question whether the state funding they would receive is enough to help them cover maintenance costs, said Ted McCormack, director of government affairs for the Virginia Association of Counties, or VaCo, which advocates for county officials statewide.
Cities, which maintain local streets, receive some state funding based on lane miles and other factors, but most still have to come up with about quarter of the money to run the street departments, McCormack said.
Dividing the money the state currently spends on secondary roads among the counties would send less money to each locality than the cities and large towns currently receive.
Matching counties to the cities’ level of support would cost the state more money, McCormack said.
Counties also will be saddled with the political liability of unpopular tax increases to fund road projects, VaCo said in written comments to the study’s researchers.
The state’s gas tax has remained 17.5 cents a gallon since 1986 when it was last increased. Gas tax revenue is the predominant source of revenue for primary- and secondary-road maintenance.
County officials also argue that operating 93 separate highway departments for each county is less efficient than having one statewide department, McCormack said.
But state Del. Bill Janis, (R-Henrico), said that by shrinking the size of the state’s road network, Virginia will have more money per lane mile to spend on primary roads, which carry more traffic and connect communities.
“The reason we have a perceived shortage of transportation dollars is because we have the largest road system in the United States,” Janis said. “It would help the state out.”
But any changes should be optional for counties, and they should control the funding, including keeping the gas taxes collected in their county, he said.
“We have a state-of-the-art road delivery system circa 1934,” Janis said. “The localities ought to have skin in secondary roads.”
He said Henrico County has grown gracefully over the decades because the county Board of Supervisors decided when and where to allow development and ensured that growth works within the local road system.
State Del. Bob Marshall, (R-south-central Loudoun), said counties should pay for their local roads, because they approve all new development. As many as 10,000 lane miles have been added to the state road system in the past two decades because of suburban, residential development, Marshall said.
“Basically they are back-dooring the state,” he said. “I think the counties should pick up some of this.”
Sad state of affairs. This discussion shows why little gets improved in Loudoun.
Those that have paved roads say “I’ve got mine, tough luck”. Those that accidently moved to a county without infrastructure think that it can suddenly get fixed after years of neglect.
You have to wonder where the tax money goes. The only road work comes from develpers, in return for relaxing zoning so that they can build cheaply built, packed-in little homes & townhouses and fake “town centers”. Those will certainly look nice in 20 years or so….
The richest county in the nation, I believe I read somewhere…
I’m struck by the line: But the secondary roads don’t meet state standards and need repairs frequently and more quickly.
Why are we building roads that aren’t up to standards and will end up costing us more in the long run by needing more frequent repairs? Would you buy a car that didn’t meet basic standards and ended up in the shop more often than other cars? Of course not! So why does our government do this when they build our roads?
Lifecycle budgeting would address this lack of accountability when it comes to infrastructure projects. Basically, it requires that any new infrastructure investment proposal include not only the costs to build the project, but also the costs to maintain and repair the project over its life cycle. Makes sense, right?
I’d like to see our state and local governments require lifecycle budgeting for all transportation infrastructure investments. I think it would save us money in the long-run.
Marge,
No, I don’t think you understand the full topics which you brought up and I noted. Take dirt/gravel roads for instance, which was your original comment - Mon, Jul 04 at 07:56 PM by Marge Geneverra -
As noted, there is no plan to pave the hundreds of miles of dirt roads, because they are what the majority of people in the west want them to be. This in endorsed in the CTP, which is the vetted plan of the people, approved by the Board.
Let’s look at Sycolin between Belmont Ridge and the Leesburg Airport. Prior to, I think, 2008, this was 2 lane dirt. This corridor did not serve many users off of it, and it’s greatest ‘value’ was as a cut-threw from Ashburn to Leesburg. Of course, remaining dirt lowered the usability of it, but we know lots of folks, and school busses, still used it. But it served its purpose as lessening the cut-through, and discouraging more development along it. Which is appropriate, as it’s a remote area devoid of utilities and other road connections.
Now, things are changing. It got paved (still only 2 lanes), to your delight no doubt, and we’re seeing more development off it, specifically at the south end at 659, and then the County’s plans for massive services across from the airport. But someone has to pay for it. When larger developments eventually get approved, the network in this weird area will get filled in, but the TA policy may inhibit things until the Board realizes that east of the Greenway should be suburban.
Sad that you’d think only a County employee would have the kind of knowledge to speak informatively about our community and the way things work. Perhaps you should give people more credit? Or stop thinking that you’re so special. I, for one, have had a few pleasant encounters at the Govt. Center with employees whose services I pay for.
But please keep laughing, and avoiding any facts.
Marge, Since you understand—- 1. How was your road placed in the secondary road system? 2. When was it placed in the secondary road system? 3. What is the road designation? 4. You are not entitled under the law to have bus transportation for your children to and from school at the expense of the taxpayer
@bit of advice
LOL!!!
“Drop by the government building” and find a person to talk to to get an explanation for anything???!
..and you think that I don’t understand?
You must be a county employee!
LOL
Did you notice the article that VDOT was giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to plant trees to the Journey Through Hallowed Ground folks? There is some of your road maintenance money going towards the “honorary” designation.
Typical Loudoun fashion…money is wasted on something that is common sense. Unfortunately, there are numerous people in this county that have no common sense, just what’s “all about me!”
Marge, your scope of understanding these topics and issues - proffers for roads, conversion of roads from dirt to pavement, lack of connectivity to Maryland - is extremely low, you would be better off asking straight forward questions, rather than hyperbolic accusations and criticisms of people and processes whcih you so clearly don’t know the first thing about.
Drop by the County Govt. building sometime and ask your questions, hopefully you’ll find a kind soul there to sit down with you and explain some of these things. The world is not as simple as you make it out to be in your comments.
@Lou
I know what you mean relative to Sycolin Rd. I was amazed that that took so long to get done - and then as a 2 lane section between new 4-lane sections! Sycolin is the type of road that I was referring to, not dead-ends or roads to private development, but well traveled routes that remain gravel and have a pretty good level of car, truck, and school bus traffic. Loudoun has over 400 miles of gravel road.
I’ve lived in several other states, some out west and rural, and have never seen well traveled roads left as gravel. That, combined with the general poor road design of all roads in Virginia, points to something being wrong with VDOT or the state road funding in general.
In most states, Rt7 would be limited access, with parallel service roads. Same for Rt 50 & 28. Instead they spend a fortune on new overpasses, only to build new cross streets with stoplights nearby. Didn’t the state get some multimillion federal grant to install fancy new red light timing on Rt 7 a few years back, that ended up not working after installation? I’ll bet that that deal filled someone’s pockets.
Rt 15 & Rt 9 are death traps, given the level of traffic and road design. Every few months we see another fatal crash on those. The new development of Waxpool is another example of a disaster in design.
The lack of bridges to Maryland is another example. No North-South options to cross the river force NS traffic east or west through congested & narrow corridors to get across at either the beltway or Point-of-Rocks.
Loudoun, in particular, seems to rely on “proffers” from developers (which I’ve never seen or heard of elsewhere) to build short 4-lane road sections separated by narrow sections. I guess that that’s the plan - amend zoning to let developers build crap housing and get a mile of road in return.
Virginia must either spend very little relative to other states, or have some serious road spending waste and corruption. VDOT sure seems to be lacking for modern road design capability.
Even when they get money, they design poorly. I wonder where my state taxes go?
Send your questions to: Sean.Connaughton@Governor.Virginia.gov, Imad.Salous@VDOT.Virginia.gov
In order for the government to act, they need to hear from you not just whining on blogs.
Marge, a little known bus fact—- under the law, the County is NOT required to provide bus service to your children, unless they are disabled. It is a complimentary luxury.
I noticed that they seem to re-pave roads that do not strike me as being that bad, such as Rte. 287 recently. Marge’s problem is that her road was probably identified or designated as a rural road by the government. Remove it from the secondary system and put it in the control of the county or the owners that use it, then you can pave it yourselves. I don’t have a HOA, but we have a road maintenance agreement and split the bill up based on a percentage. The road serves mostly the houses that are on it and we do not expect my friends in Richmond or Sterling to pay for it. In most cases, we own the underlying land to the road and that is why we also are required to keep our sidewalks in good repair and free from hazards.
@Marge….ooo the drama….you assume so much, but then if you are so worried about the possible calamity do something about the situation step up and help the state figure this out. I’m sure they’d love someone to come up with a real plan instead of just complaining. It’s not like there’s tons of money just waiting to be spent. As for maintaining roads that the general public think are in good shape—-you don’t know that for sure. What’s better….beat a road down until you have to do a complete rebuild (the road bed) costing way more money, or do a quick milling/paving to keep the road bed from major damage. Pick your poison, you’re going to pay one way or another.
Rare that I’ll agree with West Ender, but some of the little-used roads could be taken over by a HOA of the property owners with frontage.
Then some of the more used/cut-through roads could get better attention.
For the record, how much *does* it cost to pave a mile of previously unpaved roads?
minus a study, it’s just an idea. and idea’s are hard to validate, hard to get public input on, hard to submit to the state or Feds for funding…so like em or not, studies are necessary part of…how things get done.
Who else thinks the repaving of Route 15 is a waste of taxpayer money? The road wasn’t in that bad shape to begin with.
I just think it is funny that a study was needed to figure this out.
Marge,
They only paved all of Sycolin Rd. in the past couple years. This is a road that is already being widened to four lanes as we speak.
This was a road that was used by the buses to go to the Loudoun County offices off Sycolin.
So if Sycolin only finally demanded attention, I wouldn’t hold your breath on other “truly” secondary roads being paved just for the sake of paving them.
@no way sister
As a taxpayer and voter I have every right to demand services and safe roads in return for my tax money. If everyone thought like you, we’d have no infrastructure at all.
Clearly you have the services that you need & care little about your fellow Loudoun residents. A common situation these days, it seems.
I live on a paved road - my children ride a bus that travels quite a way on unpaved roads and has gotten stuck multiple times. When there’s a serious accident the county will realize the need. (Of course, you won’t care, unless you or a loved one are in the accident.)
My problem is the wasting of taxpayers money to re-pave a street/road when it looks perfectly normal and could have gone another 3-5 years before needing repaved. It seems like VDOT spends the money as it feels. I’d rather have some red lights put up instead of 4 way stop signs at some major intersections. why are lights in front of schools not blinking/off during the summer? Just seems like a lack of common and logic sense. Oh well, what do you expect from any govt?
Mostly all roads in the secondary system are privately owned subject to a VDOT right-of-way only, for travel upon your property. Your first problem is that it is under the, perhaps, improper jurisdiction of the government, particularly if “they” said the road is to remain country rural, that is gravel, which I suspect was the designation of the road.
You typically own to the center of the street under the law regardless of what your survey may show. (There is an abundance of common law to support your ownership to the center) Ask VDOT how and when your gravel road was placed in the secondary road system and ask for the documentation. They may try to dismiss you saying it is a Byrd Act road, but that does not matter, you still own it and the law had to be complied with when the road was opened/dedicated even in the 1800’s.
ASK:
Imad.Salous@VDOT.Virginia.gov
It may be improperly in the secondary road system and NOT under VDOT’s jurisdiction. VDOT’s Commissioner can, by his own motion, remove it. Then, consider your options as to how to have it paved.
Is this something of a progress? Congratulations from the Sydney Escorts and other Escorts in Australia
@Marge…..move. I am guessing the road was gravel when you bought your house. So why are you surprised by it’s condition? If you don’t like to drive on gravel—-move. We didn’t consider buying a house unless it was served by paved roads——had enough with gravel roads in the midwest to know I wouldn’t like them here either. Stop whining.
This has nothing to do with private roads.
Loudoun has over 400 miles of unpaved PUBLIC roads, supposedly maintained by VDOT, that are in terrible shape and unsafe.
Do we have to wait until a school bus puts a tire in the ditch or a washed out road section and rolls over?
My kids have been stranded on stuck school buses multiple times on unpaved roads. I pray that the buses only get stuck, not rolled over by a ditch or washout, or hit by an oncoming driver on the narrow roads.
That’s what it will take for the board of supervisors and VDOT to wake up.
@Road Facts -
I think I agree with you on this one. I live in a planned development that privately owns and maintains its internal roads. Maintenance is paid from HOA fees.
Just as I would object to the county, town, or state coming in and taking over our roads, I also object to government unnecessarily maintaining other streets and roads that are traveled upon primarily by a (relative) few homeowners. Those should be considered private roads, and the ownership/maintenance responsibility for them should be turned over to the homeowners in the area (or area HOA) to handle.
Alaska had its “bridge to nowhere” and did something about it. It’s time we consider doing the same for our many “roads to nowhere”.
The state and county need to consider whether or not certain secondary roads are properly in the VDOT system. Certain secondary roads serve a few homes and are not “public” at all yet the public pays for the roads. In order for a road to be properly in the state system, it must have been opened, dedicated, and accepted in compliance with the law at the time.
In Bradford v. Nature Conservancy, the Court explained that “landowners in rural areas frequently allowed roads to be opened through their property without intending a dedication to the public”. Because the use was permissive, the road can never convert to a “public” road and should not be in the secondary road system.
Found in Gardener Mulford, Et Al. v. Walnut Hill Farm Group, it is stated that at common law, “for a road to be dedicated to the public, there must be an offer made by the landowner and an acceptance by the public.”
Many taxpayers do not understand the difference between ownership of the underlying bed of a road, as compared to a permissive/dedicated right of way for the public to use for a specific purpose. In Williams v. Miller, the rule of a conveyance is that land bounded on a street or highway carries with it the fee to the center thereof.
Some of the roads were placed in the secondary system under the Byrd Act and many were placed in the secondary system by the county’s request. If, for example, VDOT improperly accepted a road that the county had no true legal jurisdiction over (without dedication by the underlying owner to the public), then VDOT should remove such roads. In the case of roads serving a few, near driveways, those roads should be maintained at private expense as a cost of home ownership.
I grew up in the midwest and now live in Northern Loudoun. I can accept the that we don’t have the money to pave all the secondary roads in the county but at least we should correctly construct and properly maintain the secondary roads we do have. I fully admit not being a civil engineer, but I would really like one to comment on the state of our secondary roads. Common problems I see loudoun’s gravel which I did not see in Iowa are, soft shoulders, heavy washout, pitting, and waves (repeating bumps). Largest differences from I see as a non-professional observer are: 1. roads at or bellow grade, small if any ditches (water control???), 2. finer grade gravel with loudoun’s blue stone vs Midwest, and 3. thickness of road base, (it appears thinker in the midwest).
I suspect the reason for Loudoun’s poor roads comes down the the following reasons.
1. division of funds, northern VA gets a smaller share of state funds than it should so the money is diverted to the roads with the highest impact.
2. Legacy roads. Many of the roads are older, never upgraded?
3. correcting drainage may loose some of the “homey” feel of some roads
4. Developer’s more built on gravel expecting the roads to catch up (Plenty of blame on that one, bad zoning, developer contribution, county and state road responsibility)
5. Amount of traffic on gravel.
I still can’t get over the population density off gravel I see here vs back home. Just a mile from my parents house a new development when up.. the road got paved as the houses were built.
What else is new? Another “Virginia’s roads stink” article and study.
Hey Bob Marshall, do something useful for once and give counties the ability to keep money in the county for road improvements. The guy is a waste of an elected official.
Western Loudoun has miles of reads that aren’t even paved - in the 21st century!
These aren’t lightly traveled farm roads. They have significant traffic including school buses and are dangerous, often too narrow for two vehicles to pass without one pulling off the road.
What passes for “maintenance” is VDOT sprinkling gravel over the ruts & washboard when they become nearly impassable. This solved the problem for a day or two, until it rains.
When I inquired with the board of supervisors, I was told that none of these roads were on any plans for improvement.
Shameful for a county that claims to be one of the most prosperous in the nation.
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