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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock Newt Staff Writer
In a memo dated Aug. 8, the director of management services for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) requested that the approval of the construction and location design engineers be sought prior to the public release of value engineering reports.
It was such a value engineering report on the department’s proposed Rt. 211 project which recommended against four-laning a 4.2 mile stretch of highway between Washington and Sperryville. The study team concluded that the accident history and traffic volume did not justify the expense of dual-laning the road. The team recommended as an alternative that the existing road surface and shoulders be widened, at a savings of 86 percent of the project’s estimated $14 million cost.
According to the memo from Constance Sorrell, VDOT’s Management Services Administrator, the restriction on release of value engineering studies was prompted by “two value engineering project studies [which] have been released to the general public. This release occurred prior to advertisement of the project.”
In a telephone interview Monday from her office in Richmond, Ms. Sorrell confirmed that one of the studies referred to in the memo was the one done on Rt. 211.
Ms. Sorrell’s memo continues, “I would like to remind you that all project VE studies contain preliminary cost estimate data which is protected from release by Section 2.1342 (b) 15 of the Code of Virginia.
“Please do not release past or future VE reports out
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