Chesterfield County’s Transportation Department gave an overview to the Planning Commission, highlighting new projects and how to pay for them.
Assistant Director Brent Epps told the commissioners that there are about 50 projects totaling approximately $250 Million in the works. However, he said it’s difficult to fund everything.
“The issues we face most often is clearly there’s just not enough funding to take care of the needs that we have.”
Epps says that the county competes with seven other entities in the Richmond area, including the city of Richmond, Henrico, Ashland and Hanover counties.
“And this past year we received 37% of the total available funding from the district and the remaining seven split the remaining 63%.”
Epps says they seek funds from federal and state programs such as Virginia Smart Scale to pay for the projects. Smart Scale uses state tax dollars to fund major road works. Localities have to identify a major project based on traffic and the number of crashes, he says. Then they file an application, which then competes with other municipalities. The final amount is determined by members of the Virginia Department of Transportation.
One major project slated for Chesterfield is to improve traffic flow and cut down on accidents along Route 360 and 288. The project will be done in phases, says Epps. He adds that at this time, there is no total overall cost for the project. The county developed a website called StreamlineChesterfield.com to keep residents up to date.
Phase one of construction will begin sometime in 2020.
Ian Stewart/WCVE News
