Gloucester County and VDOT officials are considering a number of short- and long-term fixes to problems with the condition of Little England and Oyster Cove roads in Bena.

On Tuesday, Feb. 14, county and Virginia Department of Transportation representatives visited the two roads in question to see firsthand their condition.

Little England Road resident Randy Orga and Gloucester Board of Supervisors member Phillip Bazzani (who is also a resident of the road) were joined by board vice chair Ashley Chriscoe, County Administrator Carol Steele, Deputy County Administrator George Bains and VDOT’s Saluda Residency Administrator Lee McKnight for a tour of the neighborhood.

Last year, residents of Little England Road filled a petition to grab the attention of the county and VDOT in hopes to have repairs done to the roads they live on. Narrow roads, massive potholes and crumbling shoulders are just a few issues plaguing the residents.

The narrowness of both roads forces motorists to drive into ditches and yards to avoid collisions. This has led to the shoulders of the roads deteriorating which, in turn, has led to large potholes developing.

The state of the sloping roads is also concerning. During warmer days, tar bubbles out of the roads and spreads to the edges. The tar also sticks to cars and tracks onto driveways. Orga said he’s also tracked tar into his garage and his home.

Oyster Cove Road residents also deal with a drainage problem. Some of the ditches do not appear to have been maintained in years. In one location, a drainage pipe is clearly visible on one side of the road; however, there is no sign of the pipe on the other.

During the outing, McKnight agreed with the concerns that were being brought up and recognized the need to address them. He also said that completely replacing the current road with a new one was not financially feasible at this time.

McKnight instead suggested a number of different maintenance and construction options to repair the roads and tackle the tar problem.

A process McKnight referred to as “trenching” was his suggested method to restore the shoulders and slightly widen the roads. This process would dig out the shoulders of the roads to build them up again. The hang-up with this method would be that it would fall under Gloucester’s Secondary Six Year Plan and would have to be given priority by the county board over other projects in order for the work to be done sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, McKnight said VDOT could lay gravel on the shoulders to serve has a temporary fix. He also said the roads could be coated to prevent more tar from seeping from the sloping road. This work could occur this spring, though McKnight was not able to provide specific dates at the time.

Work session

McKnight gave a presentation on the benefits of Restricted Crossing U-Turn intersections, or RCUTs, to the Gloucester Board of Supervisors during Tuesday’s meeting at the colonial courthouse. McKnight and the board have been discussing the possible installation of an RCUT at the intersection of Woods Cross Roads for some time as a way to reduce collisions.

An RCUT is one of a few alternative intersections designs that VDOT is supporting. RCUTs prevent drivers on side roads from making left turns. Instead, drivers must turn right before making a U-Turn at a designated U-Turn location.

The designated U-Turn locations are placed at an adequate distance from the intersection to allow drivers enough time to merge and crossover to the left lane without creating panic.

McKnight said the current intersection has 32 conflict points or locations where vehicle paths intersect. By comparison, he said a RCUT only has 10 conflict points. By limiting the amount of conflict points, RCUTs can drastically reduce the number of accidents that occur at a given intersection.

The point of debate the board has brought to McKnight on several occasions is that of stop lights. Several board members have argued that the number of accidents and the volume of traffic seen at Woods Cross Roads warrants the installation of stop lights.

Chriscoe asked McKnight how many conflict points traffic lights have. McKnight said RCUTs and traffic lights have 32 conflict points. Chriscoe argued that traffic lights could be cheaper than installing an RCUT and would likely be more effective despite having 32 conflict points.

The biggest reason for the RCUT being installed instead of traffic lights has to do with the project being funded through the SMART Scale program. SMART Scale provides funding for innovative traffic solutions, such as RCUTs rather than more traditional solution such as traffic lights.

Work on the RCUT will not begin for at least six years with its current funding. However, there are other possible funding sources that could speed up the construction process, said VDOT Fredericksburg District Traffic Engineer Peter Hedrich. He said sometimes funds become available through different sources over time but couldn’t give any specifics on what those sources might be.

Also during the meeting, the board discussed the painting of shared lane markings on Gloucester Main Street. The request to install the shared lane markings came from the Gloucester Transportation Planning Advisory Committee.

The shared lane markings will be images of bicycles to better inform drivers that cyclists are allowed to be on the road. Cyclists are already allowed to ride in the street, the markings would only serve to remind or inform drivers they share the road with cyclists.

Senior Comprehensive Planner Carol Rizzio said the markings will also inform some cyclists that they are allowed on the road. With the markings more cyclists may ride in the center of the lane which makes them more visible to drivers and less likely to hit the opening door of a parked car.

The markings would extend to the court circle all the way to the traffic light at the intersection of Route 14. The volume of traffic near Botetourt Elementary School and Riverside Walter Reed Hospital were reasons why the markings would stop at the court circle, said Rizzio.

Chriscoe said he worried more cyclists would be encouraged to ride in the road at speeds well below speed limit which would further slow traffic in an already high traffic area.

Board member Mike Hedrick pointed to the difficulty of turning onto Main Street from one of the side roads. He said he’s had to wait several minutes just to get the chance to turn with current traffic levels. He too worried the markings would encourage cyclists to ride on Main Street and would make it even harder to turn onto the busy road.

No action was taken by the board in regard to the shared lane markings.