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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
The long-delayed completion of a divided Route 211 to Sperryville has been approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.
The go-ahead came at the board’s meeting last Thursday at Natural Bridge. According to Virginia Department of Transportation public information officer John Redmond, the $14.8 million project was given unanimous endorsement by the nine-member board. The motion for approval was made by Constance Kincheloe, the board’s Culpeper District representative.
“That sounds great. . .I’m delighted, absolutely delighted,” said Piedmont District Supervisor Charles K. (Pete) Estes, who has been pushing for approval of the project since it was first delayed back in the late 1970s. “I’ve been hearing about this since I was a small child — since before World War II — people have been talking about widening that road.”
For Rappahannock’s Board of Supervisors, the decision represented a long-awaited endorsement of local planning, according to county administrator John McCarthy. Approval of the Route 211 widening “represents a final notch which ratifies the good and responsible planning of local government. The county’s elected officials have supported this project for more than a decade.
“I’m pleased,” Mr. McCarthy continued, “that local government’s decisions and planning have been ratified at the state level. All too often the state has an agenda different from the county governments, and they don’t stand behind the wishes of the localities.
“I’m thoroughly pleased,” he said, “that the Transportation Board has recognized the need and the worthiness of this project.”
According to VDOT spokesman Redmond, construction of the project’s first phase is scheduled to begin in mid-1989, sometime next summer.
That 2.3 mile stretch, from the present end of the four-lane just west of Washington to just east of the Route 622 intersection at the Covington River, is projected to cost $6.4 million.
The second phase, which is scheduled to begin as
See RT. 211, p. 16
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