Here are the ‘worst’ roads in Stafford. Will voters choose to pay to fix them?

STAFFORD — We now know where the worst roads are in Stafford County.

A comprehensive review of local roadways ordered in March by Garrisonville District Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer yielded two spreadsheets listing a total of 94 county roads ranked from worst to best when it comes to traffic volume, safety, and the potential for development along the roadway.

County officials on November 27 presented their preliminary findings. Two lists of roads separated by traffic volume — streets with less 1,700 cars per day and streets that exceed that number — opened the eyes of County Supervisors.

On the less than 1,700 cars per day list, the top 10 most dangerous streets are:

• Butler Road from the intersection of Route to Castle Rock Drive in Falmouth
• Ovnille Road in North Stafford (leads to the entrance to Quantico Marine Corps Base)
• Ramoth Church Road
• Butler Road between Castle Road Drive and Deacon Road in Falmouth
• Morton Road near Leeland Station
• Layhill Road
• Garrisonville Road (Route 610) between Joshua and Arrowhead drives
• Berea Church Road
• Shelton Shop Road
• Garrisonville Road (between Interstate 95 and Travis Lane, at the future of the planned mixed-used The Garrison shopping center where a new movie theater is planned)

The 10 worst of the more heavily traveled roads are:

• Brent Point Road between Arkendale and Quarry roads (near the new Widewater State Park)
• Woodstock Lane (near Taylor’s Market on Route 1 in North Stafford)
• Tacketts Mill Road (in the western portion of the county)
• Falls Run Drive (across from a commuter lot on Route 17 in south Stafford)
• Leeland Road at Morton Road
• Spotted Tavern Road (near Curtis Park in the rural Hartwood section of the county)
• Brooke Road (between New Hope and Eskimo Hill roads)
• Lichfield Boulevard (off Route 17 near England Run)

Each street was weighted and given a numerical score. The study looked at crash rates, the number of injuries in those crashes, as well as fatalities. Those rates were measured against statewide averages.

The study also examined the layout of the roads, taking into account for things like streets with and without markings and shoulders. Larger roads like Interstate 95 and Routes 1 and 17 were excluded from the study, and so were smaller neighborhood streets.

“We’ve got thousands of roads,” said Keith Dayton, a former county government employee turned consultant who spearheaded the study. “We can’t study them all.”

The purpose of the study, as Dayton put it, was to “rack and stack” county streets for a more significant effort — prioritize which ones need to be improved, and to identify how much cash needs to be raised to make the improvements.

Dudenhefer says on the low side, it could cost about $6 million to make the improvements to the roads on the 1,700 vehicles per day list. For the more heavily traveled roads, the total cost is still unknown.

Whatever the cost may be, elected leaders are going to need to make a case to voters to fund these projects, if they can’t get enough help from the state.

“We need to be able to convince them [the voters], this is the list, this is the cost. We need to get their support,” said Dudenhefer.

Both Dudenhefer and Rock Hill District Supervisor Wendy Maurer both served on the committee that produced the new roads list. And both say voters could be faced with road bond to fund improvements on these roads in a future election.