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Residents on Grand Brooks Road demand supervisors pave it after nearly 20-year fight
By DAN TELVOCK There's a near revolution on Grand Brooks Road. Residents who live on this dirt road in the rural Livingston District of Spotsylvania County are fed up with the dust. They're fed up with the bumps and holes. And they're sick of excuses. "We have been fighting for this road for 20 years," said Gary Greenwald at his 42-acre hay and cattle farm. "It's really been a struggle." Greenwald said every time a car drives by, a cloud of dust follows. He nailed a sign to his red barn that warns motorists to slow down because of the dust. "It's everywhere," he said. "The trees, the bushes, they're white from this dust." Deville Chowdhery, who organized more than 35 residents to ask for help at a Board of Supervisors meeting last week, said they petitioned supervisors in 1991. She said the road was on the county's six-year plan then. "In one ear and out the other," she said. Half of the 4-mile road is so bumpy it feels like a car driving over railroad tracks. Residents say motorists often use Grand Brooks Road, which connects to Lawyers and Stubbs Bridge roads, as a cut-through to State Route 20. The Virginia Department of Transportation is broke, said Livingston District Supervisor T.C. Waddy, and hasn't been able to pave the road. "I don't think the county should get involved in building roads," Waddy said. Waddy said the county's rural roads are neglected. This year, he fought to include the paved but narrow Jones Powell Road on a list of nine public-private projects to fund, even though experts said the road didn't have enough traffic to warrant improvements. In the past, Waddy said he helped get Robertson and Bradley roads paved. But those roads are just the tip of the iceberg. There are 35 unpaved roads in Spotsylvania County, spanning 29 miles. County officials say it will cost about $41.5 million to pave them all. "I feel sorry for the people but I've got more dirt roads in my district than anybody in the county," Waddy said.
why pave a road were you and your buds hunt?if you pave the road you increase the traffic on the road scare away all those pretty deer and your dogs might got hit by those cars.
what if we who live on dirt roads stopped paying our road taxes then mabe they would start paying us more attention.
Be careful what you wish for. We have a farm with a gravel road. It's not great, but it's better than a paved road with cut-through speeders using it. This will happen, believe me. I know other people who live on gravel roads and want them kept as gravel because of this reason. Hire a contractor to grade it, add some gravel and if you can keep it smooth with your own farm tractors in between. You can also have it sprayed with water to keep the dust down.
Waddy doesn't think that the county should get involved in building roads. Whoa....is he sleeping on the job? BTW, cost for a bitumomous surface treatment for these roads would be $28,762 per mile according to VDOT!!! So to at least make the roads travelable, would only cost about a million dollars. BOS: DO SOMETHING BEFORE WE ALL GET LUNG DISEASE!!!!
...for the residents of that road! It's RIDICULOUS that he hasn't done more to sell bonds to come up with the funds (in-coutny) or expressed to VDOT that it IS a much-needed project! I'm happy to work for a county that does a MUCH better job with building roads as-needed. The unfortunate thing is that I have to come down there & use that road too. Also, there are WAY more than 47 houses on that road! (that's what $8.7M divided by $186K equals.
Citizens of Grand Brooks - Keep pushing! Expect more from BOCS!
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