Levar Stoney

The Virginia Department of Transportation has trouble enough building the required amount of roadways to support the growing population in the Commonwealth, let alone filling potholes, re-painting traffic lines, and doing general upkeep to crumbling roads. One may believe that localities have the upper hand on the travel infrastructure within their borders, but not Richmond, as one person spent hundreds of dollars of their own money fixing a city road.

On the south side of Richmond, residents living along Newhaven Drive, just off Jefferson Davis Parkway, claim the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) has failed to repair their road properly after multiple calls and multiple trips to the location.

Anyone who travels through the secondary roads around Virginia’s capital city knows that roadway care has been languishing after avenues dotted with large potholes have become a normal sight. Nevertheless, Newhaven Drive resident Jose Savas says the gaping potholes around his neighborhood have almost become ditches, and even his own tow truck has suffered through the lack of repairs.

“I put new parts on it, because the hole has damaged my truck,” said Savas after NBC 12 was called about the situation.

Neighbors of Savas say that DPW has filled approximately 10 potholes, but the majority of the road there is a “disaster.”

“Over the years, the road has just totally deteriorated,” said Lori Orpiano, who has lived off Newhaven Drive for over four decades. “Trying to straddle all the potholes, especially when we get a lot of rain…I’m having to drive on an angle to get down the road.”

In February, she filed a complaint with DPW, but the results have been rather disappointing.

Afterwards, Savas spent around $600 filling in the pocked pavement and large craters himself. Both Savas and Orpiano say the road simply needs to be repaved.

“You can see all the way down, how it’s just totally deteriorating,” Orpiano said.

A recent statement from DPW spokeswoman Sharon North on the matter reads:

“Crews were last out in that area on March 18 to repair potholes. They will go back out to see if there are any needs other than a re-paving. At this time, Newhaven Drive is not on the current list of streets scheduled for paving.”

In Richmond’s biennial budget, in section 5-139, under the designation “Pavement Management,” which dictates the number of lane miles paved on an annual basis, for fiscal year (FY) 2016, 138.88 miles were paved. For FY 2017, the number of lane miles paved was marked as “N/A,” and for FY 2018, the proposed number to be paved as marked “TBD.”

For the “General Fund Services Level Budget,” infrastructure management funds for the adopted FY 2017 budget was $2,693,876. Proposed for FY 2018, the number was less than 50 percent of last year at $1,268,426.

Furthermore, DPW’s total general fund was cut nearly in half for the proposed FY 2018 budget to $39,764,859 from the $61,413,070 in the FY 2017 adopted budget.

Mayor Levar Stoney says, “In FY 18 there is capital funding of $3.3 million for paving projects.” The Capital Project Manager will have this proposed funding, but it seems that if maintenance, especially in the aforementioned area in the south side of the city, has been lacking for decades, it is unclear whether this will actually suffice.

There have been countless items in the mayor’s budget that are considered frills. From art works, to dance classes, to signage, to shrubbery around government buildings, to entertainment venues, to “diversity consultants,” to the Redskins Training Facility, all these items continue to suck vital funding from needed areas.

It seems that the Richmonders that are privy to the benefits of the budget are those within the spheres of “influence” in the city. However, for those sitting on uncushioned seats outside the city center, maintenance and general economic vitality goes overlooked.