Buckingham advances six‑year road‑surfacing plan; Firehouse Road scheduled first for FY25

Buckingham County staff presented the county's six‑year plan for converting gravel roads to hard surface and said Firehouse Road (Route 655 to the dead end, 1.1 miles) is the first project scheduled for this fiscal year.

The countywide plan, which runs from fiscal 2025 through fiscal 2030, reflects work already completed on the first four roads — Blackwell Road, Wyland Road, Mill Road and Warren Ferry Road — and a programming placeholder of $394,000 in the furthest out year. County staff said they have been estimating roughly $200,000 per mile as the construction cost for budgeting purposes, meaning about two miles can be added with the current out‑year allocation.

Matt Frederick, county public‑works staff, said the Rural Rustic grant program manual provides a guideline that a road should carry about 50 vehicles per day to be a strong candidate for conversion. "We figure 10 vehicles per house," Frederick said, adding that five houses would approximate the 50‑vehicle guideline used by engineers.

Frederick read the full current list of candidate roads and mileages to supervisors and asked them to nominate additional priorities for the end of the list. He told the board that roads already built on the plan are effectively closed out and removed from future lists, but any road that has not had funds spent on it can be changed at the board's direction.

Supervisor Bryant raised a separate safety question about Wingo Road, where a new motel is under development near the rescue squad building and could increase local traffic. "If you next time you go through that, you'll see where the motel is gonna be coming," Bryant said, and asked staff to review whether the posted speed limit and other safety measures behind Route 15 remain appropriate as traffic increases. Frederick said he would follow up and check speed‑limit options with engineers.

Frederick said staff will consolidate the supervisors' priorities, check traffic and qualification data where an item appears out of scale for the Rural Rustic guidelines, and then program a revised list for a public hearing. He said a May public hearing was likely to accommodate budget timing.

The presentation included specific mileages for more than two dozen candidate roads; Frederick said he would verify traffic counts and any eligibility issues before proceeding to formal public notice. The board gave no formal vote at the work session on the plan and asked staff to return a revised list and set the public hearing.

For follow up, Frederick said he will: verify traffic counts for suggested roads; discuss the Wingo Road speed‑limit question with traffic engineers; and prepare a revised program for a May public hearing so supervisors can adopt the six‑year plan for FY25–FY30.