Having received no high-priority funding during round six of Smart Scale, officials within the 色多多 region are lobbying for changes to the scoring system in the hopes for a more successful funding outcome in round seven.
Thirty-four projects total were submitted from the Virginia Department of Transportation鈥檚 Salem District. Those included seven projects in 色多多 County, two of which were submitted by the 色多多 Valley Transportation Planning Organization and another by the city of 色多多 for the county. They included projects on Carson Road, along Peters Creek Road and Williamson Road and on U.S. 11/460 at Dow Hollow Road near the Dixie Cavern鈥檚 exit of Interstate 81.
Creating a 鈥減eanut-style鈥 roundabout at the dangerous intersection of U.S. 11/460 and Fallbrooke Drive just east of Interstate 81鈥檚 Dixie Caverns exit would cost up to $59 million. The project did not get approved for state Smart Scale funding. The intersection can get particularly busy after any sort of backup on I-81.
This is the first time that the Salem District has not received any funding, Megan Cronise, assistant director of planning for 色多多 County, said. Of the nine VDOT districts, four didn鈥檛 receive any high priority funding: Bristol, Lynchburg, Northern Virginia and Salem.
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Virginia started Smart Scale ranking in 2014 as a way to make the process of funding transportation projects more transparent and objective. Localities, planning organizations and transit agencies submit applications for transportation projects, which are evaluated based on factors like safety, congestion mitigation, accessibility, economic development, land use coordination and environmental quality.
Smart Scale has two pots of funds, one being a district grant program and the other a high-priority projects program. The Richmond VDOT District received around 67% of the high-priority projects allocation. Three projects in the Salem District did receive district grant program funding 鈥 two projects in Carroll County, and one in Henry County.
Across Virginia, 270 projects were scored during round six of Smart Scale. Only 53 of those projects were recommended for funding. Of the $8.2 billion requested, around $1 billion was allocated. In round five, the total value of the projects supported was $2.4 billion; in round six, that total value is around $1.1 billion.
鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be a lot more competition for a lot fewer funds, I think, going forward,鈥 Raymond Smoot, member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board from Blacksburg and a retired top executive from Virginia Tech, told the RVTPO at its May 22 meeting.
Smoot
One project submitted by the RVTPO was a peanut-style roundabout where Dow Hollow Road and Fallbrooke Drive intersect with West Main Street (U.S. 11/460) near Dixie Caverns. There鈥檚 a high crash rate at both intersections, Cronise said. The intersections are on a hill, however, and in order to put in the roundabout, VDOT would have to make it more level, which made the project pricey.
This rendering shows a proposed traffic roundabout for the intersection of Dow Hollow Road and U.S. 11/460 at the Dixie Caverns exit off Interstate 81 in western 色多多 County. It is one of the projects that did not receive funding in the most recent round of state rankings.
鈥淪o even though it had the third highest safety need in the state with all the projects that were scored, the estimate was $57 (million), $59 million, and it did not score well,鈥 Cronise said.
The price tag associated with projects was a big challenge this year, Cronise said. The RVTPO provided $4 million in leverage funding to buy down the cost of the project at Dow Hollow Road, but the overall estimate was so high that it didn鈥檛 make much of a difference, she said.
鈥淲e found a few rounds ago that that leverage funding really helped,鈥 Cronise said. 鈥淣ow the leverage funding doesn鈥檛 help as much.鈥
Past rounds of Smart Scale have funded a number of projects in the region, including the diverging diamond interchange at Virginia 419 and U.S. 220. Construction on this project began recently. Combined, 色多多 County and the city of 色多多 have around $125 million worth of improvements planned for U.S. 460, funded primarily in round four of Smart Scale, Cronise said.
The scoring metrics have been tweaked slightly each round, but there was a significant rework of the metrics for round six, Smoot said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no need to resubmit these projects again if they don鈥檛 make some changes,鈥 Phil North, vice chair of the 色多多 County Board of Supervisors and chair of the RVTPO, said. 鈥淵ou could do it, but you might not find any more success.鈥
North
But there鈥檚 a lot of factors that determine what makes a project succeed in Smart Scale, Cronise said. Whether or not a project is successful in getting funded sometimes depends on how competitive the other submitted projects are, she said.
鈥淲e will continue to adapt as best we can with whatever changes are implemented, or if things stay the same,鈥 Cronise said.
For round six, three projects from the were submitted, but none were recommended for funding. The study area spans around 1.8 miles, so 色多多 County broke the study down into smaller projects to submit individually in the hopes that they would score better. However, a change implemented in round six required the RVTPO to include the entire study area in its submission, Cronise said.
鈥淚t ended up being $148 million and it definitely didn鈥檛 score well, because they changed the criteria,鈥 she said.
The RVTPO also offered leverage funding for one of the partial projects on Peters Creek/Williamson Road, which included a roundabout near Deer Branch Road. Cronise still hopes to revisit some projects from this study and find a way to make them score better in the future.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at and talking with VDOT about how to rework all of the excellent work that was done as a part of this study for round seven,鈥 she said.
Representatives from VDOT are scheduled to come to the next RVTPO meeting June 26 so members can ask questions and discuss possible changes to the scoring metric, North said. VDOT asked them to submit questions ahead of the meeting.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a Catch-22 situation,鈥 he said. 鈥淭rying to fix the playing field with reversing some of the changes is what we鈥檙e talking about.鈥
