The Transportation Sub-Committee of the Steering Committee for the Unification Study for Winchester and Frederick County has completed discussions regarding the consolidation of the county and city transportation functions. The direction from the Steering Committee was that the Sub-Committee not debate the merits of consolidation, but rather develop a plan for a consolidated transportation function.

The transportation functions of the city and county already work closely together on regional transportation issues and future plans. Both jurisdictions are represented on the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), whose discussions have been much in the news recently. These current working relationships and cross knowledge between county and city transportation personnel would certainly help facilitate a smooth transition if and when the functions are actually combined.

Transportation issues are top of mind and vital to the everyday life of all of us. Our local economies depend on a smooth functioning transportation network and future growth will be enhanced or restricted by the ability of our transportation system to adapt to that growth.

Currently, the City of Winchester maintains 100 centerline miles of roadways (16 miles of state arterials and 84 miles of local streets). Frederick County, via VDOT, maintains 100 centerline miles of primary roadway, 452 centerline miles of secondary paved roads, and 141 miles of unpaved roads. Additionally, the city maintains signalized intersections (70), sidewalks (approximately 100 miles), curb and gutter (approximately 125 miles), streetlights (approximately 1800), and street trees (1000+), and a public transit system. VDOT maintains 54 signalized intersections in the county. Add to that the large amount of equipment and manpower involved, and one begins to get a feel of how significant our local transportation functions are.

There are some major differences between the city and county in how transportation functions are currently managed. These differences would present challenges under a unified government, but are not felt to be insurmountable by the Sub-Committee. The key difference in the current structure is that the city has direct responsibility for maintenance of its roadways, while VDOT maintains the roads in the county. This is standard procedure throughout the state, as all cities and towns with population greater than 3500 maintain their own roads, while VDOT maintains roads for all counties except Arlington County and Henrico County. This system has been in place since 1932. There is no option available under current Virginia statute for cities to turn road maintenance over to VDOT. There is an option for counties to assume road maintenance responsibility, however it is a somewhat complicated and time consuming process which has yet to be adopted by any Virginia county.

The subcommittee assumed in our discussions that transportation would continue to be handled in its current manner under a unified function. Any consideration to having the county assume direct responsibility for road maintenance would need to be studied very carefully post consolidation. There appears to be a push by VDOT for counties to assume more responsibility for secondary road maintenance in the future. A transition to more county responsibility for transportation functions would likely be easier to accomplish under a combined city/county department, given the knowledge already exists in the city.

Another key difference between current city and county transportation functions is the level and type of service, as the needs are different between an urbanized city and a suburban and rural county. The city has responsibility for a public transit system, sidewalks, street lights, street sweeping, and street trees. VDOT does not handle all of these functions for the county, although they do maintain sidewalks in the right-of-ways and do some sweeping.

The Sub-Committee assumed in our discussions and planning that services would continue at their current levels under a combined transportation function.

It is unlikely that combining city and county transportation functions would yield any significant savings short term, as most of the costs are associated with actual road maintenance and equipment, and these services would not change. There would be synergies in combining county and city transportation functions that would benefit residents of both localities. These benefits would be in the areas of better coordination and quality of services, better uniformity of services, and improved operational efficiencies.

I would like to thank the members of the Transportation Sub-Committee whose knowledge of the local transportation and willingness to gather and share detailed information has enabled us to complete this study and develop our final report to the Steering Committee. Our community is fortunate to have citizens like these who are willing to give of their time and expertise to help make Winchester and Frederick County an even better place to live.

Dan Troup, Chairman Transportation Subcommittee