November 18, 2008

Governor Timothy M. Kaine
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Reference: VDOT State Project 0638-029-156-PE 104, RW-204, C-504

The Honorable Governor Timothy M. Kaine:

Thank you for your response to our email. However, I think your staff missed the point of our letter. Now that the election process is about over, we wanted to try again to see if we can reach you to address our concerns. They are not technical in nature; therefore the District Engineer is of little help. Our concerns are more about the political implications.

We are fully aware of the District Engineer’s position and that of the Board of Supervisors. What we are asking you to do is to assert your leadership in stopping this project by having the Commonwealth dollars with drawn from this project. As taxpayers, most of us in West Springfield Village are very sensitive when we see our tax dollars going for something that does not make sense.

We beseech you Governor Kaine to take another look at this project and re-direct this $30,000,000.00 to either go back to the Commonwealth’s savings account or to re-direct it to a project where the return on our tax dollars is something better than $30,000,000 per road mile.

We think a better approach to the Commonwealth’s transportation problems is to address the reality of what it is like to drive in Northern Virginia and suggest the following narrative for your consideration:

“Virginias living in major metropolitan areas need to change his or her concepts in how to travel in these areas. Use public transportation and car pool where possible, and if these are not options, have patience.” Although Route 66 just completed a widening project near Manassas, it is now as full as it was before the “improvement.”

Communities like Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church, to name just three in this area use innovative ideas in solving some of the traffic problems. They use signals, “humps,” traffic routing techniques, and enforcing traffic laws, yet there is no widening of roads in residential areas.

Fairfax County has done the same thing with some of the major roadways. One example, and hundreds could be named, is Prosperity Road between Route 236 and Route 50. Rush hour back up, both morning and evening, is bumper to bumper. Prosperity Road is a two lane road in this stretch. Yet, there are, according to VDOT, no plans from the County or VDOT to widen this road. Some three months ago we asked Mr. Herrity to explain why Prosperity is not on the County’s Plan to widen roads. No response from him.

We are asking you, Governor Kaine, to give taxpayers some consideration by having your staff person reviewing this letter to be someone outside of VDOT. We seek action from our Governor.

It is a golden opportunity for you, as Governor, to lead an initiative that brings levity to the Commonwealth’s transportation issues. If the Commonwealth would put as much energy into talking about how to address commuter issues as they do about how big the problem is, many of us think that with a sustained effort, attitudes would begin to change.

Our Committee has just about given up on current County officials. Mr. Herrity will not respond to correspondence. The Board did give us a day in court but it was pretty obvious that the old acme of “you scratch my back and I will scratch yours” was effectively being used by Mr. Herrity. The Board, without any deliberation agreed to continue support for the widening of Rolling Road.

Dave Albo, our Commonwealth Representative has actually been the only support the Village residents have found. We would have never gotten a stop light installed on Rolling Road without him.

Finally, here is an opportunity to save tax payers over $30 Million on a project that does not add value to anything. South of the Fairfax County Parkway on Rolling Road, which you have probably heard about, has desperate needs for this money to help re-direct efforts for the Federal Highway Administration’s project to build a road infrastructure around the Engineer Proving Ground. The project is short of funds to fix a major flaw in roadway design that will impact all of Southern Fairfax County Communities. If the money has to be spent, consider funding projects such as South Rolling Road.