Chesterfield to split Route 60 Corridor for SmartScale; TAC signals concurrence

Chesterfield County staff proposed dividing the Route 60 Corridor Enhancements project into smaller sections and submitting two shorter SmartScale applications this round to improve the project's chances for funding.

Barb, a committee member, described the approach: "What we've done is chop the project up into 3 sections and submit into SmartScale this round smaller sections, which might improve their chances of being funded." She explained the county would use the existing CVTA regional money allocated to the project to leverage the b'c and c'd segments and would need to return to CVTA if it later wanted to pursue the a'b western segment with regional leverage.

Daniel summarized that Project 53 (Route 60) has previously leveraged $22,100,000 in CBTA regional funds and that the existing framework does not clearly address redistribution of allocations for smaller segments of the same project. Staff suggested pursuing a framework revision later in the year to cover similar cases.

The item was informational and intended to gauge committee sentiment rather than trigger a formal vote. The chair asked if any members dissented; members expressed general support. One member said they experienced serious technical issues and would abstain from indicating concurrence until they had reviewed the details.

Next steps: staff will proceed on the basis of committee concurrence and consider bringing a framework amendment later in the year to clarify how to handle similar project redistributions.