Town rethinks funding for western bypass

Like many shared issues facing the town and county of Culpeper, construction of a western bypass around increasingly congested Main Street seems to go in circles without ever really getting anywhere.

Though the road has morphed through various designs in the past decade or more — some in town, some out of town, some in and out of town — the Commonwealth Transportation Board last week approved a 2.5-mile version entirely located in the county.

As a result, some Town Council members are rethinking their support. They want to take the $1.5 million the town originally banked for a previous bypass plan that traversed the town and county and apply it to a different road project within town limits.

This month, Town Council, albeit reluctantly, endorsed a resolution for the plan recently approved by the CTB — an outer loop road near Lake Catalpa connecting Route 729 to U.S. 522 just northwest of town.

But Mayor Pranas Rimeikis and Councilman Jim Risner voted against the symbolic support, saying town residents shouldn’t fund a road not located in town when town taxpayers will already fund the project through county taxes.

“Five years ago with the revenue sharing ($750,000 each from VDOT and the town), it was a little bit easier to support it,” Rimeikis said at the May 12 council meeting. “It came through the town, so it made sense to support it.”

Now that the state-approved road completely bypasses the town’s limits, the mayor said he can’t support town funding for it. “Town citizens will end up paying for it twice.”

Risner felt the town committing funds to a road in the county could “come back and bite us.” Plus, he said, building a western bypass, no matter its location, is not a near-term solution.

Councilman Duke duFrane, however, vocalized strong support for the county’s western bypass at the May 12 meeting, saying it would help alleviate downtown traffic “no matter where it is.”

“In my mind, it’s not an issue,” he said. “The people of Rixeyville will not benefit from it as much as the people of the town of Culpeper.”

DuFrane said the CTB-approved bypass plan was better from an engineering and traffic standpoint.

After the vote, the matter was referred back to the Town Council Planning Committee for further discussion, where the conversation continued Tuesday.

The four-man committee — Rimeikis, Risner and councilmen Bobby Ryan and Chris Snider — seemed to reach consensus that the $1.5 million in town/state funds originally intended for a bypass through town should be reallocated to the widening of Route 229 — another state road project long on the books.

According to town engineer Fritz Alderman, the Route 229 project is much closer to construction than a western bypass.

“It’s not likely (the bypass) will take place in the next three years,” he said of ongoing talks between the county and a developer as well as an associated land rezoning and/or acquisition required for the approved route. “VDOT said an outer loop probably won’t happen for a while.”

Alderman added that VDOT would allow the town to reallocate the $1.5 million to another project. He recommended the town use the money to fund phase one of the Route 229 widening — from the Mountain Run bridge on North Main Street to Fairview Road.

The first phase of the project that will ultimately widen Route 229 to the town’s northernmost limits just before the high school is slated to cost $5 million, said Alderman. Of that, $4.5 million in funding has been committed.

Alderman said the Route 229 widening project has been on the books since 1987. Critical to the plan, he added, is the exact tie-in location along Route 229 of the town’s long-planned western inner loop road.

An inner loop around the downtown — and entirely located in the town — would connect North Main Street and Sperryville Pike. The concept, which, like the outer loop, is not a full circle but rather a point-to-point road, has been included in the town’s comprehensive plan since the late ’90s.

Rimeikis felt more comfortable using town funds at this time to widen Route 229 — again, the portion of road located in town.

“I can see throwing a half million out of the $1.5 million to get that going,” he said at Tuesday’s committee meeting.

Councilman Snider agreed, saying in an e-mail Wednesday that he supported the reallocation of funds away from the county bypass.

“With the revenue share funds we allocated to the outer loop, we should be able to start 229 phase one as soon as VDOT says go,” Snider said. “That section of 229 desperately needs to be improved, re-signalized and prepared for the future inner loop project.”

Town Manager Jeff Muzzy said he would present maps and drawings detailing the 229 project at next month’s meeting so as “to guide the discussion.”