The cost of picking up litter along Virginia’s roadsides

The cost of picking up litter along Virginia’s roadsides reached a record $813,500 last year, $15,000 more than the year before, the State Department of Highways said today. John M. Wray, Jr., the agency’s maintenance engineer, said, however, that while the total cost continued to rise the rate of increase slowed somewhat. Wray’s report, including a county-by-county tabulation of litter removal expenses, came as the Highway Department’s maintenance forces neared completion of their annual spring cleanup. Total cost of highway litter cleanup in Rappahannock County last year was $4,075. Rappahannock is located in the Culpeper Highway District for which a total of $151,033 was spent for roadside cleaning. There are eight highway districts in Virginia and the total funds required to do the entire cleanup job stood at $813,559. Broken down this was $203,335 for Interstate Highways; $530,107 for Primary Roads; $80,117 for secondary roads. The cleanup, which got underway late in March, is scheduled to be finished prior to Historic Garden Week, which begins Saturday (April 24). Litter collection operations represent one of the major phases of the spring cleaning, but are a year-long assignment for highway maintenance men. Wray explained that while thel litter operations improve the appearance of the state’s highways, they also help to remove potential safety hazards, since wind-blown trash can cause traffic accidents by distracting motorists. During the cleanup, the maintenance forces already have collected thousands of discarded