THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290504
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted to spend $14.7 million to repair a section of Interstate 95 that was fixed less than six 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,'' board member Zeanious L. Newcomb said.
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 for the first time in 1989 and 1990 at a cost of $11.1 million.
Board members are appointed to four-year terms and can serve two consecutive terms. It is unclear whether any of the current board members were involved in approving the original repairs.
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.''
Transportation Department 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 with ``whatever information they ask for.''
Another 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.
Brooks disagreed with the assertion that the Transportation Department staff doesn't adequately inform the board about maintenance contracts. She said board members can always ask questions.
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.
The Transportation Department 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 the Transportation Department had wanted to spend $25 million on the 1989 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. by CNB