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The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has a six-year plan for every county, ranking gravel roads based on local priorities. The department has money set aside to improve the roads, asking the county supervisors to add more to the list as work gets done. It’s time for Buckingham to start deciding which roads to add. 

Speaking at their Monday, March 10 meeting, VDOT engineer Scott Frederick explained that after last year’s work, he has freed up a couple spots on the six-year plan in Buckingham. Specifically, he has $394,000 to spend on new road work. Now that may seem like a lot, but not when you factor costs in. 

“With estimations and inflation in mind, we’ve been using $200,000 per mile as to what it costs us to build a road,” Frederick said. 

So that means he has enough to add slightly under two miles to the six-year plan. There are a couple rules attached. In order to be considered, a road needs to have 50 vehicles traveling on it per day, Frederick said. Or rather, 50 vehicle trips. Some of those can be the same car or truck coming and going. Frederick told the board that usually it takes five or six houses to generate that 50 trip number. 

Which Buckingham roads are already in? 

As mentioned, the new additions would be placed at the bottom of the list. And each year, as roads above them are finished, they would move up. This year, the first gravel road in Buckingham scheduled to be worked on is Firehouse Road, the section from Route 655 to the dead end. After that, VDOT will work on Old Fort Road from Route 60 to the dead end, Pembleton Road from Hwy 15 to the dead end, Boulevard Road from Route 650 to the dead end, Avon Road in Dillwyn from Route 640 to the dead end.

Also on the list is Hilltop Road, the section from Route 638 to the dead end, Plantation Road from Route 638 to the dead end, Happy Hollow Road from Route 695 to the dead end, Fitzpatrick Road from Route 602 to the dead end and Randolph Creek Road from Route 613 to 1.06 miles north of Route 613. 

So the way this works is that supervisors will come up with roads to submit to the list. Then there will be a public hearing, where residents can say if they support the idea or have another road they feel deserves priority instead. All of that will take place over the next couple of months. 

Repairing potholes and clearing debris 

Frederick also acknowledged that there were still potholes in the county that needed to be repaired. That’s currently a work in progress, along with cleaning up all the debris from the latest round of winter storms. When supervisors commented that there seem to be more potholes showing up this year, Frederick said it was due to a combination of chemicals and cold. 

“There was a heavier frost this year, as it got into single digits for multiple days in a row,” Frederick said.  

All of that combined to create a number of problems throughout the county. The chemicals did what they were engineered to do and melted snow and ice. However, they also wore down parts of the pavement. Add to that the temperatures hovering in the single digits some nights and yes, parts of the road started crumbling.

“We put a whole lot more material down nowadays than we used to,” Frederick said. “The salt and brine is harsh on a road.”

He just asked for patience, adding that he hopes to have that work done here in March, so he can start patching other problems in April.