ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted to spend $14.7 million to repair a section of Interstate 95 that was fixed less than seven years ago without knowing about the earlier repair job, members said.
Board members said they don't usually raise questions about previous work on maintenance contracts.
``It's not common to inquire into the life history of a section of road before you approve a maintenance contract,'' said board member Zeanious L. Newcomb.
The board voted last month to pay for the I-95 repair between Emporia and North Carolina. The same 7.3-mile stretch, originally built in the late 1950s, was repaired in 1989 and 1990 at a cost of $11.1 million.
Another board member, who asked not to be identified, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the board does not receive enough information about contracts from the Virginia Department of Transportation staff.
The board member said he ``saw that [$14.7 million project] on the agenda, and it was such a big figure, but nobody said anything. On these maintenance projects, [the staff] doesn't give us any more than what they want us to know. And that's a big disadvantage.''
VDOT spokesman Bill Worrell said the board typically approves contracts unanimously and without discussing them, as it did in this case.
He said the agency staff provides board members ``whatever information they ask for.''
Another Transportation Board member, Gary W. Brooks, said she would have liked to have known more about the project, but didn't think the board would have voted differently.
The board usually awards 25 to 70 contracts at each monthly meeting. Worrell said the board voted on almost 100 projects last month.
``If each one of them was taken up individually, the board meeting would last a couple of days,'' he said. ``So basically they trust the VDOT staff to do its work, in terms of going through the bids and choosing the one that's the lowest bid.''
Transportation Department Commissioner David R. Gehr said Wednesday that the department had thought the 1989-90 repair would last 10 to 20 years. The contractor, Ballenger Paving Co. Inc. of Greenville, S.C., predicted the repairs would be good for 40 years.
VDOT said the concrete pavement started cracking a few years ago, and the department has been patching it ever since. State transportation engineers said they believe the concrete has been cracking from water buildup under the pavement.
Worrell said Wednesday that the Transportation Department had wanted to spend $25 million in 1989 on the interstate project but didn't have the funds and so opted for the less expensive design.
``What I'm saying is that I'm not sure anyone is at fault. The fault lay in the lack of funds to do what needs to be done to keep up with the transportation network,'' he said.
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