Tuesday’s column: The dirtman of Bent Mountain
Keith Whittaker, 70, is taking 150,000 cubic yards of dirt being moved to straighten out the S-curves along U.S. 221 in the Cave Spring area. The result is he'll have 4 to 5 acres of flat ground on the property he owns on Bent Mountain.| Photo by Dan
Keith Whittaker lived for decades on 35 or so steep, wooded acres just off U.S. 221, near the base of Bent Mountain.
The retired heavy equipment mechanic still makes his home there. But now when he looks out his back door, there’s a broad and flat 5-acre plateau of brown dirt.
Since mid-November, the dump trucks have been rumbling onto the property and dumping and leaving and coming back, hundreds of times most work days, like worker ants in a giant colony.
Ten or so cubic yards at a time, they’ve been moving dirt from a big job about 4 miles north and east along on 221. It’s the $20 million Virginia Department of Transportation project to straighten out the S curves between Crystal Spring and Cotton Hill roads.
That project is slated to be finished around late summer 2013. It involves widening a roughly 1-mile section of 221, removing two hellacious curves, building new bridges — and moving almost 374,000 cubic yards of earth.
In concrete, that amount would translate roughly into a 22-story-tall block the length and width of a football field.
About 33,000 cubic yards of fill dirt will be used in the roadwork itself, said Jason Bond, a VDOT spokesman. The rest will be disposed of at four approved sites in southwest county. One is located off Merriman Road two are on Old Mill Road. All have been reviewed for drainage and environmental issues and approved, he said.
At this point, only the Whittaker property has been used for disposal – he said he’s getting about 150,000 yards of the fill. Whittaker, 70, expects the dumping on his land will continue through July.
I asked him if he was getting paid to take all that dirt. The Australian native, who moved here in the late 1960s, laughed and said “no, not a dime.”
“This is the best thing that ever happened to this property,” he told me. When the dumping is finished, “I’ll have as nice a tract of land as anyone in southwest county.”
“And you know what’s paying for it? The stimulus!”
Shot by Dan
He’s absolutely right about that. The road-straightening project has been on the books since the mid-1990s but has been repeatedly delayed because of VDOT funding shortfalls.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the stimulus, is covering the costs.
Whittaker approached VDOT when he leaned the project was a “go” and asked them to consider his land as a dump site for earth that had to be moved.
“That was one hell of a ravine down there, at one time,” he told me last week, gesturing to the east side of his home. “I couldn’t even get a tractor to mow it. It was too damn steep.”
VDOT inspected the land and decided it was suitable, and what followed was a survey, a contract, and no little amount of engineering work.
The dump site is ringed with berms and silt fencing. Compared to its size, little of it has washed away during some severe storms this spring.
The deep ravine is now long gone, buried beneath scores of feet of dirt that bulldozers have tamped down and pushed around.
The site is so massive that you can easily view it miles away, from high up on Bent Mountain. It looks like a giant dirt scar near the base.
Because it will still take years to settle, Whittaker’s new land isn’t suitable for building. He says it’ll be planted with grass and some trees and perhaps fenced in as a horse pasture.
“But you could put in there that I have plans to build a low-income trailer court,” he joked. “That’ll get the neighbors in an uproar.”
May 17, 2011 - 6:00 AM
I like his sense of humor!
Sandi,
You really need to hear his sense of humor with his sonorous voice and Australian accent. It’s a great combination. He’s a character.
Keith is quite a guy. He met his wife (who was from the Roanoke Valley) when she was visiting her brother in Australia. He left behind a farm (which he still owns) to move here in the late 1960s and marry her and start over. Sadly, his wife died three years ago.
Moving dirt from one place to another. America is swallowed in debt, and 0bama is throwing away billions of dollars on stuff like this.
It’s like saying the cure for a bruised leg is to break it.
I was under the impression it was VDOT who signed off on that stimulus project.
Who is in charge of VDOT? And who does that person answer to?
Oh!
Yeah!
It’s Gov. Bob McDonnell!
Well part of the reason that “stimulus is bad” Governor McDonnell had to take the money is that he has reneged on his promise to solve the problems of VDOT funding. Of course the only promises that matter are those made by President Obama, we all know that. The odd thing is that McDonnell gets a pass while Obama gets insulted beyond measure, go figure.
I am sure the people who lobbied for 220 to be fixed in those dangerous places will enjoy the project when it is done and I am sure Governor McDonnell will be all too happy to take credit for it all by himself if he can.
Geithner borrows from the pension fund to stave off US default while Congress fights like spoiled children and it is unconscionable, McDonnell borrows from the pension fund and “he balanced the budget and shows a surplus”. Fickle is as fickle does.
I don’t travel it daily like many do, but I never saw the sense in spending that much money to straighten that curve. However, as Dan points out, this was a project VDOT AND Roanoke County has been wanting for decades. It wasn’t Obama’s idea.
I’ll bet a pickle right now that several years after the realignment of Route 221 is completed, statistics will show that MORE accidents per year occurred than before the stretch of road was straightened. With the construction that is going on, the pace of traffic is usually a crawl. But even before the construction began traffic generally moved at a pretty slow speed, primarily because of the curves which forced traffic to slow. Take away the curves and whaddya’ think will happen? The pace of traffic will almost assuredly speed up. There are several intersections in that stretch, none of which will be controlled by a traffic light. This realignment may help the volume moving through it, but not the safety.
I was under the impression it was VDOT who signed off on that stimulus project.
Who is in charge of VDOT? And who does that person answer to?
Oh!
Yeah!
It’s Gov. Bob McDonnell!
Comment by Dan Casey — May 17, 2011 @ 12:32 pm
Richmond Times Dispatch: March 5, 2009:
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama announced the release of $27 billion nationally in stimulus funds for infrastructure, which will include $694 million to maintain existing Virginia roads and bridges. The Virginia aid is not yet targeted specifically.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2009/mar/05/stim05_20090304-221501-ar-50632/
Hmm. Now who was governor in March, 2009?
And as I recall, the General Assembly took a lot of heat for turning down stimulus money in the latter part of that year.
Jp has an interesting point. There is a theory of traffic engineering (perhaps OJ could tell us more) that posits that the only thing new roads/improved roads do is attract more traffic, which causes more jams (the very thing, often, the new work was designed to alleviate).
Yeah, and what do you think McDonnell balanced the state budget with in his first state budget?
Stimulus! (In addition to borrowing from state workers retirement funds, then turning around and requiring them to ante up 5 percent)
Dan, do you know when this project received the final go-ahead? If VA was given the funds in 2009 as stated in Suzie’s article, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this particular project was officially given the green light in 2009.
That being said, hasn’t this particular project been in the works for many years?
Dan, you’ve essentially got that correct. The basic theory makes sense when you consider traffic flow on a roadway in the same light as the amount of water flowing through a pipe: there is a specific capacity of each a roadway and a pipe, and while you can put more pressure on each, it’s very hard to move more volume without adding capacity, i.e. expanding the roadway or pipe. When there is a constrained roadway, such as a rural 2-lane facility, theory (backed up by real-world evidence) posits that drivers will seek the best route that balances travel times, travel speeds, anticipated delays, and directness of the route. In modeling traffic on a regional scale, whenever one roadway has its capacity increased, naturally more traffic shifts over to that improved roadway and the entire network balances out, except where the surrounding roadway network or origin-destination demand do not support measurable shifts in traffic flow patterns. Part of the shift in traffic volumes comes about by developers seeing a chance to construct new residential or commercial properties along the widened roadway, since traffic congestion won’t be a factor.
That’s why in Christiansburg, much of their latest retail growth boom (Spradlin Farm, NRV Mall renovations, Regal Cinemas, Shoppers Way, etc) all happened around the time that the new 4A Rte 460 bypass was under construction or shortly after it was completed…it shifted so much traffic from North Franklin Street that it got massively easier to access the commercial parcels along 460 Business, and that helped fuel substantial growth there until the recession hit.
With the 221 area, I would have to say that because 221 is the lone direct route between Floyd County and Bent Mountain down to the floor of the Roanoke Valley in Cave Spring, that I would not anticipate a noticeable increase of traffic volumes as a direct result of the project, simply because there are not any logical, viable parallel or alternative routes for drivers to take. 221 is the most direct route, and presently has more than enough capacity even in its 2/3-lane sections from Floyd to Cave Spring. So based on those factors, I would say that 221 is the logical route due to its travel speeds, lack of actual congestion, and that it’s the most direct route between localities, and that mostly mitigates a the potential for driver re-routing as a result of the construction improvements
But, jp is correct that travel speeds will inevitably increase, at least between the two low-speed 90-degree curves. Local drivers and regular drivers of 221 know that the road has those sharp curves and to slow down when they traverse them. Once those curves are removed, that constriction on travel speeds is gone and drivers will likely be able to travel at free flow speeds of 45-55 MPH through that area where they once had to slow to 15-20, or slide off the road into that billboard (or into the trees adjacent to Back Creek) on the outside edge of the last curve before hitting the widened 4-lane section. But, I would disagree with jp’s assessment that this would cause more intersection crashes through the improved area, mainly because in the project area, there are 3 intersections: Sunnycrest Rd, Ran Lynn Dr, and Cotton Hill Rd, of which Cotton Hill is by far the busiest. Currently, none of those intersections is signalized, and none have any turn lanes to or from Rte 221, which is a leading contributor to crashes with secondary roads from primary highways.
The final project will re-align Ran Lynn with Cotton Hill to create a 4-way intersection with left and right-turn lanes from 221 to both side streets, and there will be ample sight distance, something that was lacking due to current topography. Travel speeds should not be substantially different in that area either, drivers are already doing 50ish today as it is, and that won’t change. The Sunnycrest intersection will be massively improved as well, being moved (technically it is remaining at its present location, but will access the new Rte 221 via a segment of the current Rte 221 alignment that is being abandoned) from the middle of one of the S-curve (sight distance limitation) to a tangent section of the new alignment, and it will also have improved conditions with a left-turn lane. The new Cotton Hill/Ran Lynn intersection may eventually meet MUTCD warrant requirements for a traffic signal (likely as development continues in that part of Roanoke County), but looking at the proposed improvements, the fact that there will be a dedicated right-turn lane from Cotton Hill Rd to Rte 221 NB into Roanoke will alleviate most of the traffic congestion that presently occurs, and may help preclude any need for a signal based on traffic delays (caused now by the restricted-width bridge over Back Creek).
In terms of the Route 221 project history , it dates back to 1993 when 221 was widened from 419 to just north of the S curves. The funding was allocated and removed several times. Only in July 2010 were funds to construct the project identified, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That decision by the Commonwealth Transportation Board to allocate stimulus funds for construction, so the project could be awarded to English Construction of Lynchburg, happened 7 months after McDonnell took office.
Just to repeat the end of OJ’s lengthy post:
“In terms of the Route 221 project history , it dates back to 1993 when 221 was widened from 419 to just north of the S curves. The funding was allocated and removed several times. Only in July 2010 were funds to construct the project identified, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That decision by the Commonwealth Transportation Board to allocate stimulus funds for construction, so the project could be awarded to English Construction of Lynchburg, happened 7 months after McDonnell took office.”
Sorry, Suzie — you lose again.
OJ – thanks for answering my question!! So with the information provided, the money was given to VA by the Feds in 2009, during the Kaine administration, but the funds were not applied to this particular project (221) until July 2010, during the McDonnell administration.
And now we wait for the inevitable rebuttal that it’s a waste of money caused by the Democrats.
#13 Careful, Dan, it’s got to be part of suzie’s intricate logic puzzle trap to trick you into saying something or other.
Re: #13
By now, one would think that Suzie would have learn to validate and think for herself before posting, given the consistency with which she ends up losing — by posting opinion as fact, by not doing her homework or otherwise getting the facts wrong, by repeating propaganda at face value, by believing & repeating or making up outright lies, by using poor logic, etc.
But then she is clearly a true believer. In many ways she is a poster-child for Eric Hoffer’s <em"The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements. This 1951 social psychology book discusses the psychological causes of fanaticism and is a good insight into Suzie and the TP, as a whole.
Hoffer’s descriptions apply today to the TP’s appeals to frustrated people who are dissatisfied with their current state, but who are also capable of an unquestioning belief in a future. To attract folk such a Suzie, such movements need to glorify the past, devalue the present and spread an almost “religious” doctrine or manifesto promising a glorious future, if only….
Although most folk think of such movements as attracting poor people (such as we see in the Arab Spring of 2011 w/ its hopes and fears), the true believer can often be other misfits and people who feel thwarted in their endeavors. Suzie is clearly defined as a true believer by her oft demonstrated frustration and dissatisfied with current state of affairs, her cries of isolation from the mainstream (which defines her as a misfit in the world in which she finds herself), her glorification of an idealized past, her susceptibility to unthinkingly believing & repeating propaganda, her delusional decorations of winning & her failure to recognize her many lost debates, her unquestioning faith in glorious future following the TP take over in 2112, etc.
Kaine took the stimulus money. Doesn’t look like I’m the one that needs a rebuttal.
Why do u say Kaine is the one who took it?
Kaine was in office when the stimulus was originally passed into law, that is true. However, the approvals for the use of the stimulus funding did not occur until after McDonnell took office, with the initial approval of the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s plan by the Federal Highway Administration coming in February, 2010…when McDonnell was in office. Additional approvals had to be obtained to actually secure the money, and the final approval of the CTB/VDOT plan did not come until September, 2010…well into McDonnell’s term as governor. He could have, at any time, declared that the state was going to halt the process for obtaining ARRA stimulus money, but he did not.
In fact, one of the first things he did as governor (less than a week in office) was to issue this letter on behalf of the State to demonstrate that the state was continuing the process to demonstrate proper use of stimulus funds, and the letter also states ‘that I accept responsibility that such investment is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.’ And add to that, this particular letter referenced this particular Route 221 construction project, and got McDonnell’s own personal approval. At any time, McDonnell could have halted the process and Virginia would not have gotten any of the stimulus money. Instead, McDonnell not only kept it going but he welcomed it with open arms privately, while simultaneously denouncing it publically. The consummate political panderer…he would make Clinton proud.
Kaine took it and McDonnell used it. What was your point again?
#20 Point? Suzie likes being wrong.
Suzie is correct. The Kaine administration accepted President Obama’s stimulus for roads projects, and the 221 widening has been on the priorities list for 20 years. It’s hard to see what Governor McDonnel has had to do with any of this other than watching the bulldozers start plowing during his time in office.
yetanotherjason,
Are you serious? Didn’t you read OJ’s post?
yetanotherjason reads very like someone else.
Dan, that would be a big fat NO.
Henry and DD are gone, someone has to defend Suzie. Looks like yetanotherjason is it. He and Suzie don’t bother with the facts. We know she post comments on topics that she hasn’t bothered to read. She’s admitted that more than once.
I loved how VWRC was once considered reasonable by the left. Now, they’re saying he’s my husband or wife, or even me., even though one in their own ranks has met and socialized with him, and declared him a great guy. These kooks are truly amazing. Associate or defend Suzie, and everything they ever knew about someone goes out the window. I do appreciate VRWC having my back.
YAJ,
Thank you too for the kind words. You guys really kind of embarrass me. Although I fancy myself a bit like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham, I’ve never really thought about trying to go on television, although I once had some overtures to model. As for the talking, yes I do a lot of that and very fast, so says my husband.
“And I do have a problem with guys who men on their wives.”
What was it that you meant to write, Suzie?
Should have been “cheat” on their wives.
Follow the link to information on the 221 Project. If you access the aerial photos take note of the subdivision off of Cotton Hill Road. One of many in the area, and as usual VDOT is playing catch up to the developers. The need for the improvements has been there for years, and increases with every new home built. The new intersections will have vastly improved sight distances making the road safer for all concerned.
http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/salem/route_221_improvements_-_roanoke_county.asp
yetanotherjason reads very like someone else.
Let us never underestimate cattiness. Kristen is still peeved at YAJ for once saying my insults were funnier. Poor guy thought he was complimenting both of us.
A signature on piece of paper? That type of evidence will never hold up in court…
Oh wait…
Suzie fancies herself a bit like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham! Actually,
her blog avatar, if you changed the hairstyle just a bit would be a lot more like Rachel Maddow! And anyone who thinks being like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham is a good thing definitely has to be quite a few bricks short of a load.
Blue John, that’s one thing that was nice about some legislative changes pushed by Kaine regarding developers and VDOT. It requires developers to pony up more for adjacent road improvements away from their sites, if their development creates traffic problems elsewhere. Too bad that wasn’t in place 20-30 years ago, NoVA might be an easy drive today otherwise…
You certainly remind me of Ann Coulter, Suzie.
#27 As I said, suzie, VRWC’s more recent posts — not just the ones praising you — have been quite different than they were in the past, and I’m obviously not the only one who thinks this is the case. And his defense of you is incredibly disingenuous, completely ignoring your distortions, lies, declarations of opinion as absolute fact, links to bad sources of information, superfluous insults, and on and on.
I make no claims of knowing who anybody is and I have no theories that you or anybody else is posting as VRWC. I’m merely stating my observations.
I agree OJ. I recently completed a project in Loudoun Co. that had developer participation in funding. The increases in traffic, county services, school population, and water and sewer usage are a huge hit on local governments. It’s only fair for the developers to bear part of the initial burden.
Personally, I hope I never have to go back to NOVA. 81, 66, 95, 395, and now the “Hot Lanes” construction takes it’s toll over time. It’s odd though, I had more time to blog while I was there. I have been swamped now that I’m back home and I’m lucky to have time to read the posts, much less participate.
Welcome back, Blue John.
Blue John, I know what you mean about continual construction and the toll it takes. I grew up on South Hampton Roads, and for a very long time, there was nearly continuous construction where I lived as the City of Virginia Beach, along with Norfolk and Chesapeake, tried to cope with the regional growth down there in the 80’s and 90’s. I-64 was almost always under some level of expansion to take it from 2-lanes in each direction to 3-4 lanes plus the HOV lanes in the median, not to mention work on 264 (including the old SR 44 toll road), 464, and 664 (with the MMMBT project). Then there were dozens of non-interstate projects like Virginia Beach Blvd, Lynnhaven Parkway, Ferrell Parkway, Princess Anne Road, Volvo Parkway, Independence Blvd, Kempsville Road, Indian River Road, Military Highway, and dozens of others than seemingly never ended. The running joke was that the state tree was the construction barrel, and the state flower was flashing orange lights. They finally got the bulk of those done, but more continues to go on down there, and then they’ve got the behemoth 3rd crossing bridge-tunnel study that’s ongoing too to help alleviate the never-ending congestion of the HRBT and now the MMMBT. I enjoy going back for short periods of time, but I take 460, and I don’t miss the traffic at all. Thankfully, despite having a lot of work in the NoVA area now, I don’t have to go there often. I’ve been there maybe twice a year, and that’s not so bad since I time it to arrive after 10, and leave before 3…thereby avoiding the bulk of the congestion.