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Page County accepts VDOT secondary six‑year plan; officials outline road projects and signal work at Big Oak
Summary
At a public hearing, VDOT resident engineer described Page County’s secondary six‑year plan, including year‑by‑year gravel and paving work, the county’s rural‑rustic approach, a list of candidate roads and a scheduled traffic signal project near Big Oak/Taco Bell. The Board moved to accept the plan.
Page County accepted the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) Secondary Six‑Year Plan after a public hearing in which VDOT staff outlined projects, funding limits and a planned traffic signal at the Big Oak/Taco Bell intersection.
The plan, VDOT Resident Engineer Don Kumar said, is funded at roughly “a $300,000 a year” level for building and surfacing the county’s secondary roads that qualify for the program. He described the county’s rural‑rustic option and identified specific roads VDOT intends to surface or improve over the coming years.
Why it matters: the six‑year plan sets VDOT’s priorities for resurfacing, paving and minor widening on the county’s secondary system and signals where limited funds will be spent. Kumar said the program balances safety, traffic counts and costs and can change how VDOT approaches right‑of‑way for rural roads.
Kumar described the county’s rural‑rustic standard, which avoids acquiring wide rights‑of‑way by building on a 30‑foot corridor allowed under Virginia law: “Now we could do it on what we call a, a rural rustic, which is 30 feet, which is what we get by the code of Virginia.” Under that approach, he said, expected pavement widths would be about 16–18 feet with narrow shoulders and a small ditch.
Kumar listed projects that are in the plan or under immediate work: McDaniel (recently hard‑surfaced and scheduled for final rolling), Mount Carmel (grading and stump removal underway), Old Stanley Road (targeted for 2026), Bridal Loop (targeted for 2027), Springfield (targeted for 2028) and a section of Cavalier (from Route 340 to the dead end) pushed across multiple years because of cost and length. He said about 42 miles in the county qualify for the program.
On the Big Oak/Taco Bell intersection, Kumar said the project was delayed but is now being advertised and is expected to go to bid in July with construction to start in the fall. He described a signal design that will include “offset lefts” to shorten left‑turn movements and said contractors will need to order mast arms early because of a 12– to 16‑week lead time. “It’s advertising next month in June. That means we’re putting it out there for the contractors,” Kumar said.
Kumar also summarized other maintenance and surface work, including a planned 6‑mile asphalt paving run from the foot of a nearby mountain to the Rappahannock County line, surface treatments on Beam Road, Vaughn Summit Road and Jenkins Lane, and storm‑damage response after recent heavy rainfall.
After the public hearing, a supervisor moved to accept the Six‑Year Plan as presented and the board approved the motion.
What was not decided: Kumar said VDOT and the county try to stay one year ahead in stakeholder notification and that exact timing for later projects depends on available funds and scheduling; the plan itself lists candidate roads and target years but does not obligate future funds beyond the current programming.
