What’s the holdup with Bus. 29 road-widening?

Apparently the never-ending work on Bus. 29 fronting Lowe’s, Chili’s and Five Guys on one side and Target, Staples and Glory Days on the other is in its final stage.

If VDOT had been selected by President Eisenhower to lead the effort in constructing the interstate highway program, I-10, which runs from Jacksonville, Fla., to Los Angeles, would not have reached the Louisiana/Texas border by now.

I cannot imagine a work project that has been so poorly managed. This less-than-one-mile effort has drug on for what seems to be at least 18 months. I can only guess at the financial impact this lackadaisical effort has imposed on the businesses fronting this road.

The public has been deprived of easy/understandable egress/ingress, traffic safety has been jeopardized and, most importantly, the reflected image of the town of Culpeper has been severely damaged. 

We have been informed of the decline of fiscal resources in the state of Virginia to support road construction/maintenance projects.  In an effort to gain some control over budget shortfalls, some jobs have been lost and even some headquarters positions in Culpeper and elsewhere in the state are being eliminated. If the level of effort expended in the Culpeper project is an accurate reflection of the quality of work performed by VDOT, this reduction of force is probably a good thing.