- Source: VDOT’s 2006 State of the Pavement report (1.3MB PDF). Based only on interstates and primary roads, with urban roads excluded entirely.
Essex County has the worst roads, with 38% of all asphalt deficient, followed by Franklin (36%), Tazewell (36%), Rappahannock (34%), Northumberland (32%) and Dinwiddie (32%). It’s a five-way tie for the best roads, with perfect scores for Buckingham, Greensville, Princess Anne, and Fluvanna.
Princess Anne? Uhh…they mean Virginia Beach?
So, the print at the bottom of the document indicates that it only includes interstates and primary roads…I wonder how the numbers might change if secondary roads were included. Any way to find out how an individual road was rated?
Even weirder than Princess Anne is their inclusion of “Nansemond.” I like to think that I’m pretty familiar with the nooks and crannies of Virginia, but I’d definitely never heard of Nansemond. Turns out it’s an extinct city — it was a county for over 300 years, and then it was a city for just two years (1972-4) before being absorbed into Suffolk. How odd that VDOT includes it (and its 1.32 miles of road) as if it were a real city.
Not within the State of the Pavement report, but you might be able to find out more on the always-excellent VDOT Dashboard.
There’s a Nansemond-Suffolk Academy. That’s the only place I’ve ever heard with the name.
One issue I have with this sort of thing is the automatic assumption that gravel roads are bad. There’s actually a even program in Virginia that aims to eliminate all gravel roads.
For people who run, cycle, or just like to walk down their street without getting run down by a car going eighty, gravel roads are great. After all, what would Albemarle County be without roads like Ridge Road or Dick Woods? Anyway, my point here is that road improvement can be a good thing, but only if it is really wanted and needed by the community. For example, I keep hearing about plans to pave the Gravel Road that goes to Innisfree Village. People already drive fast enough down that road as it is, but I fear that it would become to dangerous for people with disabilities to walk along that road anymore if it were paved.
There is no assumption on the part of VDOT within their road-quality grading system that automatically classifies gravel roads as bad. I live on a gravel road, and I’d be unhappy if it were paved. Paving the road to Innisfree would be bizarre — there would just be no point.