VDOT Updates Highland Supervisors On Recent Storm Damage

Monterey, VA – County road conditions were on the Highland Supervisors minds at this weeks’ meeting. April’s high winds brought many trees and limbs down and the heavy rains did significant damage to secondary roads. Virginia Dept of Transportation crews have been very busy and repairing water damage. Mike Henry of the Lexington office of VDOT briefed the Supervisors on the April activities.

“The whole time’s been involved with repairing roads from either high water or wind damage that we’ve had” he says. “Last week we had a pretty substantial rain storm over here, sustained a good bit of damage in the county. We still have a lot of work to do; we’ve been concentrating on getting people in and out as best we can.”

Mr. Henry also spoke about weather related problems with the Route 612 Bullpasture River ford project.

“We’ve got everything we need to do the work; we had it scheduled twice in April and the rains have held us off. We need about a two week period of time when the water is not extremely high to try to go in there and do the work.”

Mr. Henry says work is restricted from May 15th through July 31st, so it will probably be August before they can begin that project.

Millgap resident Sherry Sullenberger asked about a safety issue on a road in that area used by several large trucks and school buses. She says there is a section of Route 600 N that has a very shear drop off. Mr. Henry says that VDOT will take another look at that situation to see what can be done.

A public hearing was held on the secondary road construction program and budget. The Board voted to accept the plan as written. Supervisor Rexrode requested that that VDOT look at reducing the speed limit on Route 220 S in Monterey from the flashing light to just past Jerry’s Electronics to accommodate the planned access road from Route 220 to the swimming pool.

Bids came in last week for the Monterey sidewalk project. Adam Mitchell of Covington bid $443,000.00 and Plecker of Staunton bid $426,000.00. VDOT has some questions to resolve with the bids before a construction contract can be awarded. Construction is expected to begin this summer.