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Page 4 · column 3 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
Letters
Value
Engineering
To the Editor:
I have to laugh when I read Ray Pethtel’s letter lauding VDOT employees and their money-saving ideas.
In particular, Pethtel cites "value engineering” teams who have saved Virginia taxpayers $35 million-he doesn’t say over what time period. It was only a few years ago when one such value engineering study was leaked to me and a few others, unequivocally disparaging the then proposed dual-laning of U.S. 211. Instead, and in no uncertain terms, this report strongly recommended improving the existing roadway, at a cost-saving to taxpayers of nearly $20 million.
VDOT, of course, simply ignored its own internal recommendation and went ahead and dual-laned the road anyway. PethteFs letter is just a bad joke: on Virginia’s taxpayers, the environment, and, especially, on VDOT employees.
STELLA CADWALADER
Washington
94.9%