CUMBERLAND – In response to the Virginia Department of Transportation continuing with the construction project on the Muddy Creek Bridge (Route 684) near the Cumberland and Powhatan counties border even though citizens in Cumberland and Supervisors had expressed concerns related to safety and the time-consuming detour that was put into effect, a letter was authorized to be sent by the County Administrator indicating the Board's discontent with that project to Virginia's Secretary of Transportation.

“There is a draft letter…to VDOT concerning construction projects and the concern about lack of community and public officials' involvement… This letter is just presented for the Board's review and approval for me to forward this on to our VDOT representative,” said County Administrator Judy Ownby at the beginning of the discussion. It was later decided that the letter should be directed to the Commonwealth's Secretary of Transportation.

After the request was made Elbert Womack, District Four, expressed that he wanted to make a few comments before the submission of the letter was authorized.

“I'd like to make it short and sweet and say that I think it is inexcusable how they handled the Muddy Creek Bridge thing and I'd like for it to some way get back to VDOT that this Board goes on record saying that that was really inexcusable the way they handled that project down there and more or less ignoring the citizens in the County and leaving the Board completely out of the picture,” he said.

As stated in the letter, the following are comments and observations of the Board members:

“VDOT's lack of involving the community or public officials in the planning stages of projects appears to be standard operating procedure for all construction work other than the six-year plan.

Local officials find out about projects the same time as the public.

Involvement in the planning stages could help mitigate citizens' concerns and help offset the impression that VDOT even cares.

After permits are received and contracts are engaged, it is too late for VDOT to change almost anything.

No analysis appears to be done on the costs to residents as a result of a significant detour and, therefore, an offset to claimed higher project costs by VDOT if the project does not move forward.

No analysis appears to be done on the lost revenues or increased costs to local business and, therefore, an offset to claimed higher project costs by VDOT if the project does not move forward.

No information has been provided to the public as to why this work is even being done.”

The letter was authorized with one change that was brought to the County Administrator's attention by Supervisor Womack concerning how the handling of the Muddy Creek project brought to light a number of issues to the County.

Supervisor Bill Osl, District One, also added that Ms. Ownby copy the letter to the area's representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board and it was later decided, after some discussion, that the letter be officially sent to the state's Secretary of Transportation (Sean Connaughton) but only copied to the County's local liaison Jorge Huckabee-Mayfield and the VDOT Lynchburg District Director.

“I'm less concerned about sending it to the local office as I am about the sending it to the Secretary,” said Osl. “I think it should go up the line to the Secretary of Transportation and Ms. Mayfield can be copied since this is a stemming problem throughout VDOT.”

The County's Supervisors began voicing their concerns related to the Muddy Creek Bridge project late last year once the project was brought to their attention and only after detour signs had been placed by VDOT near the bridge.

The detour creates an additional 30 minutes of driving time for citizens in the area and Cumberland's emergency services has described how the detour could impact emergency service response time.

According to the project update that is provided to the Board each month by VDOT, in January the contractor, Bryant Construction, closed Route 684 at Muddy Creek Bridge and repairs started in January.

Also, last month, a reduction was negotiated concerning the bridge's closure time from six months to five months and it was noted that the agency is still working to seek ways to reduce the duration of the construction project further.

That update stated, “VDOT has received a number of citizen complaints and concerns and we will continue to address these as we receive them.”

February Update

Cumberland's County Administrator gave the Supervisors an update on Tuesday evening during the Board's regular meeting.

She advised that she had not received a response.

In February's VDOT update related to the bridge, it states that the demolition portion of the project is complete and the substructure repairs have been performed.

The report also states, “The contractor currently plans to open the road ahead of schedule.”

“I go down there periodically and check it out and they are leaving all the infrastructure and supporting structure of that bridge is not being touched,” asserted Supervisor Bill Osl, District One, during Tuesday's meeting, describing his perception of the bridge work. “The deck and everything is being taken off and new ones are being put back in place on the existing structure that is already there. I don't know why they are doing that…I'm not sure what the trouble was with that bridge other than there was money available and someone decided that they were going to spend it on that project.”

According to Osl, the few small businesses located near the bridge have also been impacted due to the detour.

“We've seen business fall off by one-third to two-thirds in those little local businesses that are there. That's a significant local impact on the businesses that are there to say the least…”