CHESAPEAKE
Heading home to North Carolina from Greenbrier Mall, teenagers Corey Walters and Kimberly Kuffel headed down Dominion Boulevard when an SUV going the opposite direction swerved off the road.
The SUV slipped into a rutted shoulder, jerked back on Dominion and crashed into the teens’ dark green Mustang on that summer day in 2006.
Both of Walters’ femurs were broken; Kuffel was in a coma for more than three weeks. Both sued the city, alleging that the city’s poor maintenance of the road amounted to negligence. Earlier this month the city settled the case for $4.3 million.
As the teens’ lawyers gathered information, they uncovered evidence that the city knew about Dominion’s conditions and did little to fix them until after residents complained.
Dominion Boulevard is one of the city’s most dangerous roads of its kind, a “two-lane rural road that’s being asked to perform at intercity rural highway standards,” said Interim Public Works Director Eric Martin.
Chesapeake has wanted to fix it for years, but it has lacked the funding.
The plan is to replace the Steel Bridge and widen parts of Dominion to four lanes from two. . Officials’ hopes of securing the $320 million needed to fund it were pinned on a regional transportation authority that was struck down earlier this year by the Virginia Supreme Court.
And a proposed $1.1 billion tax increase for transportation that could have raised money for the fix was killed by a House of Delegates committee Thursday – two days after Chesapeake City Council voted to urge the General Assembly to take action on a funding plan .
Dominion Boulevard is handling three times the amount of traffic it was designed to carry, city officials say. Trucks frequently use the tight road , and traffic often gets clogged at the Steel Bridge, which rises for boat traffic traveling the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River.
Over the past five years, there have been more than 1,100 accidents in a busy six-mile stretch , police records show. More than 200 accidents resulted in injuries, and at least two resulted in death .
The city’s Public Works Department received multiple requests to fix the rutted shoulders along that same stretch. One request came three days before the 2006 crash that seriously injured the two teens.
The teens’ Virginia Beach attorneys, David Dickerson and Todd Sartwell, say the crash could have been avoided if the city had paved Dominion’s shoulders and had a better road maintenance program all along.
“There was no system in place to check the roads,” Sartwell said. “There was no true system to make sure they ever got fixed.”
According to documents and depositions gathered during the litigation, city employees admitted that the road’s shoulder was a safety hazard . They said there was no system in place to routinely check and inspect the road’s conditions. Road crews responded mostly to resident complaints. When asked why there was no preventative maintenance program, city employees blamed a lack of resources.
Since the settlement, public works officials have developed a program to perform quarterly shoulder and road maintenance on Dominion and other overburdened two-lane streets like Elbow Road.
They also have ordered yellow and black caution signs that warn of low shoulders along Dominion. Mayor-Elect Alan Krasnoff wants to consider lowering the speed limit.
Public works officials say it could cost $2 million to pave the shoulders on a five-mile stretch of Dominion, and they are planning to discuss a funding proposal with City Manager William Harrell.
Harrell said he would like see a more aggressive way of dealing with public complaints about roads, and he wants to continue strengthening the preventative maintenance program.
Interim Public Works Director Martin said the city will work to maintain roads like Dominion until funding is obtained for larger improvement projects.
The city has $38 million to design the Dominion improvements and will be ready to advertise for construction by 2010.
But funding the construction could be difficult. The Dominion Boulevard project was one of the projects to be funded by the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, which was struck down earlier this year by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Martin said bringing Dominion to four lanes, and replacing the two-lane Steel Bridge with a fixed-span bridge, will help spread out traffic and avoid many of the crashes.
Until the city finds the full $320 million for the project, the city will look at other maintenance options, Martin said.
The city spent $13,000 fixing Dominion’s gravel shoulders days after the settlement was announced.
Interim City Engineer Earl Sorey said the city is compiling a report on locations with high accident rates.
Chesapeake will pay close attention to several other two-lane roads that also are overburdened with traffic.
Public works crews will be out at Elbow Road today through Thursday to perform maintenance on shoulders and any crumbling road edges. Ditch and shoulder work was recently done on Johnstown Road. City officials plan to do the same on Waters Road, a thin street where 18-year-old Paul Harris’ car went around a sharp curve and overturned in a ditch on September 13, 2006. Harris died a week later.
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
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Who's falt is it??
To the people who are condemning the driver of the SUV I ask these questions;
Are you traffic engineers?
Are you accident investigators?
Were you personal eye witnesses to the accident?
Did you personally collect all the evidence from the scene of this accident to level your accusations?
The fact is you don’t have all the evidence in front of you and really should not be making baseless assumptions or accusations.
The fact remains that this is a highly traveled road and in dire need of repair. The city has admitted that they have blatantly ignored this problem and now it cost them 4.3 million. That’s quite a price tag for ignoring a problem. We should expect more from our elected officials.
Dominion Blvd not a hazard, drivers are
Whoever left the road way and caused an accident is at fault as they failed to maintain proper control of their vehicle at all times. To sue the city and every other deep pocket to find money { I meant fault} is just doing the American Thang. If sueing 1 person may make me rich, then sueing every person in sight should make me richer!!!! The city cannot patrol and repair the potholes in the driving lanes fast enough with the budget they have. How can any one expect the city to keep the road side edge repaired? And how did the road side edge get damaged? Because we as drivers cannot control our vehicles when talking, drinking, texting, hollering at kids or dodgeing some other moron's vehicle approaching headon in my driving lane. The city should have fought a little harder on this one. AND, if the city had not so vigorously wanted to expand their city limits, many years ago, so they could collect city tax
Dominion Blvd
Over the years there has been money for bike paths,ball fields, lighting for tennis and etc. If that money was used for the roads we probably would not be as bad off as we are, Special interest run Chesapeake.
Sounds like driver error to me
The description of the wreck sounds like driver error. First running off the road and then messing up getting the car back on the road. It's the driver's responsibility to know how to drive and pay attention to road conditions. I'd highly recommend these people NEVER go driving in the mountains.
Also keep in mind when the city has to make a payout, it comes directly out of the taxpayer's pocket. This is about $20 from every household in Chesapeake.
Ever notice
Have you ever noticed how in front of the new subdivisions the roads are nice and wide with nice big turn lanes? Thank the "greedy" developers for that. The city forces them to put in the improvements. When there is now new devlopment, the city is tasked with making improvments. The city tries to wait for developers to fix the roads, like on Elbow, Waters, and Johnstown Roads. Maybe it is easier for the City to just pay for damages instead of fixing the roads, $4.3 million for injuries, versus $380 million to fix the road.
Too funny
So Elbow road is scary? People all over the world are laughing at you all. Get real, there is nothing dangerous abou the roads except those who choose not to practice caution while using them.
Bottom line: The car that hit the kids over corrected. If that driver had control it would not have occured. I wonder who they would have blames had there been a jersey wall up on the shoulder?
Folks, every year I drive on roads that offer no room for error. Roads that if you do not stay inside of the painted lines(per the law) then you may die. In this area, they remove trees and offer wide shoulders. Everyone can keep crying, but in the end it is not the roads fault. It is inanimate. It is only what you make of it.
...and the sad song continues...
Cry me a river City of Chesapeake. I've lived in Great Bridge the past couple of years and I commute Dominion on a daily basis, unfortunately. I also live adjacent to a man whom in his military-paid retirement years, keeps himself plugged in to local politics of Chesapeake (council meetings, forums, etc) and boy has he told me and SHOWN me evidence of a City running amock. I only wish I had it here to post url links, pdf links, and the like as well. My hopes of a revised Dominion Blvd in a timely manner died years ago when the City decided to back OUT of the deal with North Carolina in updating/widening their portion of Route 17, all the way to 64.
The interchange at Great Bridge Blvd was completed and North Carolina widened and re-paved their portion but Chesapeake fell away with the rest of it. It didn't help that some then-political officials were caught paying for trips/expenses/royalties to the
Roads
I hate this road it is a mess just pathetic. I agree to some other posters who ask for accountability of the city budget. Chesapeake has grown much faster than the infastructure has been developed a failing of local government, but to play devils advocate for a moment, Instead of a 4 inch dip in the shoulder what if there was a 200 ft sheer cliff do you think drivers would pay more attention to the road and not find themselves in a situation where they have to oversteer their vehicle careening into the other lane?
Lower the Speed Limit
I was in a head on accident this year on Dominion Blvd. due to another driver.(Told me he was on his cell phone) I now go through Great Bridge almost every time rather than drive on that road. I think Mayor Krasnoff is correct in trying to lower the speed limit. I would like to see it no higher than 40 mph.
Walmart/New Mall - no extra traffic on Dominion!!!?????????
It was interesting to note that when Walmart went to the City Council to build their new store they promised that it would add no new traffic to Dominion Blvd.
I noticed that last week when City Council reviewed the plans for the new shopping area on Dominion & Cedar, the proposers also promised that the shopping area would add no new traffic to Dominion Blvd.
And both times, our City Council nodded, believed these promised and agreed to the proposals.
I'd imagine that they heard something similar for each of these new housing developments that have been (and are being) built off of north Dominion in the past few years.
It's lucky that none of the new development on this corridor has affected the amount of traffic on the road. Otherwise our City Council might have decided that we who regularly must drive Dominion Blvd. are lesser citizens and not worth any attention.
hmmm...
hmmm... sooo it would be nice to read how much money is available for road improvements and where all the money that is collected/received for road improvements is going. we're always hearing there is not enough money, but we don't read information that would help us understand better the city's problem and indeed the regional problem. right now i don't believe there is not enough money for roads in virginia and in chesapeake. i think it is being spent unwisely. it would be nice if VP would provide that kind of responsible information (links, pdf's, etc.) in their articles instead of just an article that doesn't really say much other than yapping.
No funding?
I've been hearing that the big problem is money for new roads. Also that the reason they need to 'raise' more money for new roads in Hampton Roads is because the budget has been primarily for repairs. Now this? Will we ever know what this budget mystery is all about? Trust me.
suv
sounds like the suv that swerved into the wrong lane caused the accident not the road
I hope all the people who
I hope all the people who blog against, protest against, and shoot down legislation for raising taxes for transportation funding read this article. How much longer will people have to pay with their lives because no one wants to pay for road projects? I don't want to pay higher taxes either, but I'm willing to pay my share for safer roadways.
No Funding???
The City has funding for Bel Harbour and a new $5 million road for WAlmart and the entire Economic Development Dept and all thier pet (give tax $ to developers) projects, but no funding for roads! I sure hope the new mayor can set priorities better!
funding is abundant... other expenses are the problem
When we educate the entire populace to believe that government shall provide a myriad of services, when each of these services requires a full time staff with benefits, and when city human resources focus on being diverse before anything else... then government will need a lot more money. We have more than enough money for quality roads. Our problem in Chesapeake, and elsewhere in this Commonwealth and country, is that we spend it on way too many other things we ought to be providing for ourselves.
Elbow Rd.
Elbow Rd. is the scariest road I have ever driven on. I drove on it once, and I will never drive on it again.