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Maple Grove Drive in Spotsylvania to reopen by Labor Day Date published: 8/16/2008
By KELLY HANNON Maple Grove Drive near Spotsylvania Towne Centre will open to traffic by the first week in September. The subdivision street has been closed since June, when dam spillway pipes on a private pond corroded from age. The pipes run underneath the road, and the collapse created a 5-foot-deep hole, making the road impassable. Work to repair the road will begin Aug. 25, and is scheduled to finish Aug. 29. The road's two-month closure forced residents of several subdivisions behind the Towne Centre to drive out of their way to reach their homes. In most instances, the Virginia Department of Transportation would have fixed the road immediately. But state law prevents the department from fixing a private dam, said David Stanley, VDOT residency administrator for the Fredericksburg area. Stanley said VDOT has worked through legal issues. In this case, the road could not be fixed without replacing the dam's spillway pipes. The property owners refused to pay to fix the dam or to have the pond drained, Stanley said. VDOT and Spotsylvania County were able to work out an agreement that let construction move forward. An agreement signed Monday by Spotsylvania County Administrator Randy Wheeler and Stanley says Spotsylvania "will communicate in writing to the dam owners that VDOT does not have any maintenance responsibility for the dam." Also, "should further repairs be required on the part of VDOT, which are necessary for the safe use of the roadway, we may be required to install a pipe at the original stream elevation in order to drain the pond." Taxpayers will pay for the $10,000 repair to the road and spillway pipes. VDOT got Spotsylvania County's permission to use emergency funding that the department sets aside for each county. VDOT and Spotsylvania officials plan to meet with the Virginia Attorney General's Office to plan for any future problems with the dam, said Tina Bundy, VDOT spokeswoman. Jerry Logan, chairman of the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors, received numerous calls and e-mails from residents inconvenienced by the road's closure.
spine! Thanks for giving my money away Jerry. Why don't you run for school board so you can work for the other Jerry who gives our tax money away.
Is the road built on a private dam? Is that what they are saying? Shouldn't the county have bought that outright? I mean, don't they have imminent domain or whatever? To have a county road running on something like that is asking for trouble. I can see where the land owners may have had legitimate concerns. Would the pipes have lasted years longer if it didn't have all those vehicles driving over top of it everyday? Silly stuff like that. I just want that mess fixed.
and put up commuter parking there.... put a lien on the property.. place some kind of sanctions.. Im tired of people shrugging responsibility.
That road is also the means for the school buses to leave that neighborhood and return from school. FLS should print the name(s) of those owners who refuse to take responsibility. They've created a public nuisance by not keeping up their property and they should be held financially accountable. If that means losing their home, then so be it!
Give them the bill, if they refuse to pay, drain the pond and send them that bill too.
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