by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Stafford County will receive $10.2 million in funding through a federal grant program to reduce flooding on Brooke Road.
The offices of Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner announced the funding in a press release Monday afternoon.
Brooke Road, or State Route 608, is the only access point for some 400 houses on Marlborough Point and other neighborhoods east of the intersection with Andrew Chapel Road, as well as for Crow’s Nest nature preserve.
The funding will be used to re-align a 0.45-mile portion of the road from Loblolly Lane to Maplewood Drive, a portion known as “the S curve,” which has seen increasing VDOT work orders for flooding and water pumping.
According to a presentation given by Kyle Bates, VDOT Fredericksburg Resident Engineer, to supervisors on February 20, first responders had to rescue vehicles that got stranded in flood waters on Brooke Road twice in 2020.
The road was closed four times in 2018, which saw record-breaking rainfall; once in 2019; eight times in 2020; five times in 2021; once in 2022; once in 2023; and once so far this year.
Just last week, multiple residents spoke during the Board of Supervisors meeting and sent emails to supervisors, begging them to fund improvements to the road.
“With every rainstorm, the water pools in several areas, and in one area, a stream has developed across the road, all of which makes for extremely hazardous driving conditions,” said Mike Riccio, a resident of the area, in an April 2 email to supervisors. “With the constant pooling and flooding, Brooke Road will not last… it is already beginning to deteriorate in some areas. Please make this road a priority.”
According to resident Barry Tovig, “Vehicle accidents have become more frequent as drivers must navigate their vehicles around standing pools of water.”
“The fire department and ambulance services are deeply concerned that they might be unable to reach homes east of Chapel Hill in an emergency situation. All of this of course puts the County in a potential negligent legal liability situation if a fatal tragedy occurs (and near fatal events have occurred: recall the Board awarding two motorists an award in 2020 for rescuing a women stranded in flooded waters and a vehicle catching fire along the S curve),” Tovig wrote in an April 2 email.
In 2018, according to Bates’s presentation, the Board authorized consultants to conduct a preliminary engineering report for Brooke Road.
In 2022, new drainage pipes were installed in the “S” curve, the road elevation was raised 6-8 inches, and a water pump was installed.
The pump activates when standing water reaches a fixed limit. It pushes water through pipes into a well and is then pumped into Accokeek Creek, which runs parallel to the road.
However, Bates told supervisors in February, “waters in the creek must recede first to receive pumped water.”
Andrew Spence, the county’s chief director for information services, said supervisors authorized county staff to apply for the federal Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) grant in June of 2023.
“Stafford applied for a grant to cover 80% of the project costs,” Spence told the Advance in an email Monday. He said the total project cost is $11.1 million.
The PROTECT grant was made possible by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Kaine and Warner said in their joint press release.
“We’re glad this funding will prevent this flooding and help Stafford County residents safely get to where they need to go and avoid delays,” the senators said.
Spence said the county received preliminary notification of the grant award today but is “still awaiting official notice.”
“Once officially notified of the award, this item will go through a public hearing process to accept and appropriate the funds. After this, the Board will proceed to hold discussions on any programed capital funds,” Spence said.
