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.
Spotsylvania and VDOT officials met in early July to address the problem, and Logan thought it had been settled. However, he said VDOT told Spotsylvania supervisors earlier this week that the agency needed additional clarification in order to get permission to replace the dam pipes.
The agreement signed Tuesday clarified things, Logan said, allowing construction to begin.
"It all hinged on the wording," Logan said.
Before the recent agreement was reached, state Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, was prepared to look at the law to see if a legislative remedy was needed. Since Maple Grove Drive is a public road, VDOT should fix it, he said, but the private owners of the pond and dam should shoulder responsibility, too.
"I don't think we can just let them say, 'Oh, it's not our problem.' It is their problem, because it's their dam that's causing the problem."
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com