Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) officials changed their minds about including Brughs Mill Road in the Smart Scale projects the Board of Supervisors are now proposing in the current round of applications for updating the state Six-Year Road Improvement Plan.

Last Tuesday, the supervisors were asked to include straightening Brughs Mill Road as part of a broader plan to improve traffic flow through Daleville on US 220. That plan— the Rt. 220 Superstreet and Rt. 640 (Brughs Mill Road) Improvement Project— was proposed by VDOT as a way to improve traffic flow by providing an alternate route to connect I-81 and US 220 north of Daleville by using Exit 156. VDOT officials, though, recommended taking Brughs Mill Road out of the project because the cost and the prospect that the Superstreet improvements in Daleville would mitigate the need to straighten Brughs Mill Road.

The supervisors agreed to that idea at their July meeting. But the board delayed voting on another resolution that would support what’s estimated as a $19 million project for the combined US 220 and Brughs Mill Road project. Supervisor Chair Jack Leffel said he was okay giving County Management Assistant Cody Sexton “guidance” to proceed with the Smart Scale application, but he was not prepared to vote on it yet. “Obviously, we have some questions on it. It’s only $20 million. We need more information and, most importantly, we need a little bit of public input,” Leffel said in recommending waiting until the board’s regular August meeting to vote on a new resolution.

“I thought we took Brughs Mill Road off because it would hurt us in getting Smart Scale money?” Supervisor Billy Martin asked. “VDOT screened it out. Now, they’ve screened it back in,” County Administrator Gary Larrowe said. The county can submit four Smart Scale funding applications, and to accommodate the Brughs Mill Road project the supervisors dropped a proposal to put a pedestrian crossing on US 220 between Daleville Town Center and Orchard Marketplace, an $86,000 project that VDOT officials said could be handled another way. County Management Assistant Cody Sexton said VDOT’s Salem District office received revised guidance from the Richmond office that the Brughs Mill Road work could count as an “overall network improvement.” The US 220 component includes putting restricted crossing U-turn (RCUTs) in the median in several locations between Botetourt Commons and Catawba Road. That also includes two synchronized stoplights at the Lord Botetourt High School entrances/exits. The estimated cost of the combined project is $19.3 million. The Brughs Mill Road component is $13 million and the US 220 RCUTs are $6.3 million. Sexton recommended including the US 220 RCUTs as a separate project. Sexton said having both projects in the application gives the Commonwealth Transportation Board options of funding the whole project or just the RCUTs. He also noted that projects that cost over $10 million are unlikely to get funded.

The supervisors did pass a motion to strike the Daleville Town Center/ Orchard Marketplace crosswalk from the county’s Smart Scale applications. The other county-submitted projects the board is considering are the proposed RCUT at the intersection of US 220, International Parkway (Greenfield) and Ashley Way, and making alignment changes on Glebe Road in Daleville and bike/pedestrian improvements there. The supervisors are being asked again to endorse a Roanoke Valley- Alleghany Regional Commission project to make safety improvements on northbound I-81 between mile markers 167.4 and 169.5 north of Buchanan and a Roanoke Valley Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) application to widen the I-81 southbound lane between Exit