Let’s look at how our money is spent

Dan Gates
Published: April 16, 2008

If the Minnieville/Spriggs Road intersection is an example of how our tax dollars are spent, then the Board of County Supervisors needs to look a lot more closely at responsibility and accountability.

In less than eight years, the intersection has gone though three redesigns with the fourth one currently in progress, and three reconstructions before the bonds used to fund them have even been slightly paid off, and in one case, before construction was even completed.  Less than two years ago, Mr. Blaser highlighted the safety improvements accomplished by raising and modifying the approach to the
west side of Spriggs Road. 

Yet just recently, one of his staff stated, “The existing conditions (vertical and horizontal alignments) of the west approach are substandard per VDOT and AASHTO requirements needing upgrading to ensure safe movement of traffic.”

Was the project flawed or are we ripping up a new section of road because designers don’t take the time to integrate recent improvements? 

It doesn’t seem like the distance from Cardinal Drive to Va. 234 is so great that planners can’t build a road once instead of three times in such a short time, or maybe they haven’t heard of the county’s
strategic plan, which has listed Minnieville for four-lane expansion for quite some time. 

So I ask, will the board consider the process of how we do things as well as how we spend money?

DAN GATES
Woodbridge