A truck came into the neighborhood today and drove some of the gravel into the road. It did this several times and left. The large pothole still remains. Is this how the county repairs a road? It needs to be repaved, large deep cracks are all through the road and both cul-de-sacs. Shame on you for calling this complete. This will be reported to our congressman and your supervisor. If this were Salisbury , it would have been paved in a minute.

I would like to add my dismay and displeasure with the inappropriate job performed on this job. It is sloppy, inadequate and has only made the road and neighborhood worse. The gravel has damaged cars and houses without improving the road at all. After the Hy-Tech road cleaning truck came through today, it appeared to remove at least half of whatever was put down weeks ago.

The entire job needs to be redone - this time correctly. Please provide the names of the accountable officials in charge of this job.

VDOT is using surface treatment (tar and gravel) throughout Chesterfield County to preserve the existing pavement. Like in previous years, we will not be doing any paving in subdivisions this year. We are focusing our paving funds this year on the heavily traveled routes--interstates and primary roads. The surface treatment technique was chosen given the condition of the pavement and the available resources. Surface treatment is a different product than asphalt. The surface is rough. It is a very durable surface and one that we use in subdivisions in other counties. This extends the pavement life and is much more affordable than asphalt.

The loose gravel is a normal result of surface treatment. We will typically vacuum the remaining loose stone two to three weeks after application.

While I appreciate the VDOT input and explanation, it truly seems inadequate. The gravel was JUST vacuumed up this week and the result is that we are now better able to see the underlying original road. There is barely anything left of what was put down, so it appears as if little to nothing was accomplished. So even if this surface material is durable, I don't see there is much left to accomplish the intended purpose.

I don't have a problem with not paving due to lack of funds, traffic patterns, etc., but I do have an issue with the lack of notification/explanation, what looks like a half-a _ _ _d and incomplete job and a result that in no way seems better than what was present previously. The contrast in your communication and efforts between what happened in our neighborhood and the fabulous job you are doing with the Huguenot Bridge project could not be more striking.

So .... are you now done? Is there another phase of work to come? If so, when? If not, what can we expect with the road in its current condition and what would justify further "improvements"?

Harry L Gewanter
8116 Buford Oaks Drive

This project is finished??!!!! ANd i thought I'd let you know, someone has already "vacuumed loose stones in the neighborhood". The result--Every house has a pile of loose gravel at the entrance of their drive way. Pleas provide me with the name?names of the supervisors responsible for approval of this project and it's "completion". The neighborhood would like to send our bills to them for the repair of chipped and cracked windshields and flat tires due to loose gravel.

Fran Hines
8208 Buford Oaks Drive

The neighborhood would like to schedule a meeting with the Supervisor of VDOT. Please help us arrange it

VDOT would certainly be willing to discuss this work with you further. Please send your contact information to Richmondinfo@vdot.virginia.gov and a supervisor will get in touch with you. Thanks.

While this is a smaller subdivision, it is populated with neighbors who take pride in the grooming of their properties and the streets that serve us. Since moving here in 1994 I have noted paved roads but generally with some rough spots. Even that would be superior to the loose gravel slurry that we currently endure. This is simply not an adequate fix. We are not a country lane or backwoods neighborhood and deserve the valid paving that our homes, suburban location and tax dollars would indicate. VDOT, please allocate the resources necessary to get this overdue job done now.

As you can see, pretty shoddy workmanship. Very unevenly done and quite unsightly. Bad for property values, unsafe for kids (no bike-riding here) and motorcycles... who decided this was acceptable? The roads were much better before.

It looks dreadful - to an extent of lowering property values - is patchworky an incomplete, is somewhat dangerous to children (don't bother getting the bike and skateboard out this year, Johnny) and motorcycle riders... we pay the same gas taxes everyone else does, no? The contractor did a shoddy job of it. There even appear to be twigs in the mix, and much of the loose gravel is still there. Even the parts that were "covered" aren't comprehensively done, to say nothing of the potholes that were untouched.
In a word, this is unacceptable. The roads were better before.

Please have a Supervisor contact me again. I want to know if she has read these latest neighborhood remarks, and if she has driven into and all around the neighborhood to see the source of the neighbors' remarks. My number is 804-651-8880. Thank you .

Fran Hines

This week a "Steam Roller" spent a good hour rolling over the neighborhood. He did a good job pushing what little gravel there is into the road. The problem that has now been created by doing a "slurry " here is that there a many , many areas over the neighborhood that are just tar with not enough gravel on them. The sun is already melting the tar, in many areas. Can you imagine what this will look like when the temperature hits the 80's and above consistently? I have spoke to "Butch" the Superintendent and to our county rep. and was told in a rather terse tone that he will not come to a neighborhood meeting to discuss the issue. I am closing out this problem but it will be re-adress as the temperatures rise figuratively and literally.

I decided not to close the issue and instead will take some video of the melting tar when the weather warms again.

Today the temp. reached 84 degrees and it's only May. As you can see from the enclosed photo, we have oozing tar all over the neighborhood. This photo was taken at the intersection of Buford Oaks Lane and Buford Oaks Drive. The ViRGiNIA RED CLAY that someone put down(what's that about?) has for the most part ben washed away by recent rains. We now have tar being brought into our houses on our feet. It is ruining our rugs and hardwood floors. It is spattering over our cars. Who do we send the bill to for repair of our homes? We need more gravel on the roads. Honestly, the road looked better before it was "repaired". Please fix the roads in our neighborhood, and we want to have a meeting with the supervisor, any evening.

I must say, I didn't think the tar they used would actually melt, but you're right - it becomes liquidy goop when it's warm. It's unbelievable. If someone had told me VDOT would do something that makes a road un-walkable, I'd say "no way." But, sure enough, it's now a nightmare. If you walk on the road - pretty much anywhere on the road - the goop and pebbles stick to your shoes and get all over carpeting, flooring, sidewalk, etc., unless you take off your shoes (something frowned upon where I work). And the stuff sticks to your car tires, gets all over your driveway, pings your undercarriage, etc. I wasn't crazy about the aesthetics, but at least it wasn't destructive. Now it is. VDOT must fix the mess they've made.

Here's a close-up taken yesterday when it was 84 degrees.

At the intersection of Buford Oaks Lane and Buford Oaks Drive, you can see where where the melted, gooey tar has painted the road.

And here you see where the goop has stuck to my car tire. My shoes look similar after a short walk to the mailbox.

now neighbors are wondering if this is roofing tar---it's such a gooey mess all through the neighborhood. Also , my neighbor had irrigation installed, and those trucks plus others coming through to do yard work have gouged out areas all over Buford Oaks drive that are now gooey tar. The neighborhood wants to have a meeting with the supervisor . Please call me at 651-8880 to set up a time to meet , any evening during the week.

Thanks Steve for the photos, very clearly, we have a big mess with the tar , and poor amount of gravel used to try to cover it up.

Glad to do my part. We've had to cover our foyer's carpeting with plastic mats - not much fun. I'll be posting more photos to a Flickr site soon and writing some folks. I'd pretty much resigned to acceptance, but this is unbearable.

This is the cul de sac on Buford Oaks Lane, very near Buford Oaks Circle. The dark areas are the goop.

I have sent a message with a link to this issue to Supervisor Gecker, Senator Watkins and Delegate Loupassi.

Harry

Surely, even in this time of budget austerity we deserve a better paving solution than this. The summer heat will render this remedy even less effective. There are other Chesterfield paving projects that are proceeding without these type of temporary methods--let's get it done right to begin with so we're not looking at doing it over again next year. Kevin Reynolds

thanks for everyone's remarks. I have a called "12 on your side " for a second time, after failed attempts at getting any improvement to the roads ,using their suggestions. Perhaps this time , we may be selected to have this issue evaluated further. It was suggested that we get a petition from the neighborhood and send it to the proper authorities.

Have not had any response from anyone concerning the mess these roads shave become since the "slurry was put down to Improve the roads". I'm going to close out because it's pretty obvious to me that they're finished with our neighborhood. This way , we can start a new complaint now for all the oozing tar on the roads, our cars and in our homes. They usually respond with in 48 hours if anyone wants to take over "the cause".
Fran

Ms. Hines: SeeClickFix is not monitored on a regular basis, unlike inquiries that come through VDOT's website or call center.

A district representative inspected the work in question after complaints from residents and agreed that the condition of the road following the recent work was not acceptable. The work that was done was not a slurry seal, but rather a chip seal. VDOT plans to do a slurry seal on top of the chip seal. Expect the work to begin within the next 30 days.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact VDOT's customer service center at 800-FOR-ROAD (800-367-7623). Calls to our customer service center are logged in our database and each customer is given a work order number. This allows us to track customer requests and determine the status of the request. At this time, maintenance requests entered through SeeClickFix do not generate a work order in our system unless someone from VDOT manually enters the information on our online work request form at http://www.virginiadot.org/travel/citizen.asp.

I can speak for all my neighbors in thanking you for not neglecting our neighborhood. We look forward to finally having the road repaired to look like it did before the "chip seal" was done.

Fran Hines

I would like to keep this open until after the repair work is completed

I would like to add my appreciation as well. It will be excellent to have this appropriately repaired.

Thank you.

Harry L Gewanter

I'm thrilled. I was really getting concerned with all this tar and the increasingly warm weather as summer progresses

Issue reopened, thanks for your patience!

This week, the contractor will sweep the roads in the Buford Oaks neighborhood. Starting next week, they will apply sealant to the pavement. Of course, all this is weather dependent.

Today the contractor did come with the sweeper but did not sweep the whole neighborhood . The sweeper did not go to the end of Buford Oaks Drive and into that cul-d-sac at all and I'm wondering why? Did it not need to be swept or is it that that area is not going to have sealant applied, in which case I am really concerned because that area and the whole neighborhood need to be redone as we have expressed many times in our emails.

Fran Hines

I'm glad to see that VDOT now agrees that the work is sub-standard, but it doesn't look like the contractor gets it yet. Buford Oaks Lane also is so far "unswept." The contractor responsible for the initial treatment four months ago must have known the work was slipshod and should be held to account.

Our project manager has informed the contractor that they need o complete the sweeping in the cul-de-sacs before applying the pavement sealant. The contractor should be finished with the sweeping by the end of the week. Thanks for letting us know about the cul-de-sacs not being swept.

Thank you so much for having this addressed so quickly

Ms. Hines: Would you mind helping us to spread the word about the upcoming pavement sealing to your Buford Oaks neighbors? In order to properly seal the roads in your neighborhood, residents will need to park their cars someplace other than the road for the next two weeks (through July 1) so the contractor can make one final sweep of the roadway June 23-24 before they apply sealant starting June 27 (Mon.). Thanks for your help.

It would be my pleasure

You may have already gotten a note from the contractor... they're supposed to come out next week to work on the roads. I called the contractor because part of the note confused me.
It states that the cul de sacs will not be as open to traffic as will the rest of the roads. As our neighborhood is unusually cul-de-sacky, I called the contractor for clarification.
He said that they're doing only one side of the cul de sacs a day so we sackers will still be able to get to and from our homes, and that safety cones will make allowable access pretty clear. (And, btw, the church has told the construction crew to not park on the road - and they haven't actually been parking on it - during that stretch.)
Keep up the good work, Fran.

Hi Steve. I asked The pastor of Unity Church last week whenI put the flyers in everyone's mailbox to please make sure the construction crew is made aware of VDOT's plans.Her only concern that she focused on , was having road access for a church function sometime next weekend. I came away from our conversation not feeling like I got my message across to her. I was relieved to get the VDOT flyer because hopefully the information on that one clarified things for her. Could you keep an eye on your end of the neighborhood for cars that may be parked in front of houses next week and I will keep an eye on the remainder of the neighborhood. Thanks and bty the barrier to the church is still open for the very large equipment entering from our neighborhood. Hoping it won't be used next week.

I spoke with her, too. She's spoken with the builder twice so I think it'll be OK, at least during the week. Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks again.

Thank you Steve and the other neighbors who helped in getting the road re-done. It took all our efforts to be heard and finally have the Rep come out to see that the work was substandard. CMonday can't get here soon enough!

To VDOT:
I see from the VDOT Richmond post below that the final sweeping was to be done June 23-24 in preparation for sealing starting Monday, June 27. However, I don't see any less gravel on Buford Oaks Lane than was there before. I just want to be certain that the road is prepared appropriately for the sealing Monday so that it's done right and this issue can be closed.

Thank you for your recent efforts to resolved the concerns of our neighborhood.

We have the same problem with loose gravel throughout all of Buford Oaks, that will need to be resolved before the final sealant to the pavement is done and the project is completed

I mentioned this to the contractor on Friday. He said they plan to sweep up the loose stuff on Monday, although he said something about equipment. I guess we'll see.

Nada... no sweep... gravel's still there. The construction crew was cool - no one parked on the street.
This is pretty disappointing.

One of the Gewantger's car was parked on the street all day--good thing the crew didn't come. Also the construction crew was parked on the street for some time today--sorry about that!

Au contraire, mon ami! The car was off the road and on the grass. They didn't say how far off the road objects needed to be placed.

Harry

Do we know why nothing was done today?

Harry

My guess is that it had reained last night, and had just stopped sprinkling around 7:00. Maybe they thought we were going toget more rain. Hoping they'll be here tomorrow

Technically you're right Harry, but not too long ago I was parked "off the road" and a riding lawn mower came by, and flipped a piece of gravel up and shattered the driver and passenger windows of of my Windstar. I couldn't prove how it happened . i'm just letting people know, VDOT is not going to go around the neighborhood asking people to move their cars. It's a good possibility that the road won't get worked on around the cars parked on or near it. I was just asked to pass on the request from VDOT, not to park along the road. Interpret it any way you want to. :)

The contractor is finishing up pavement sealant work in the Walton Park area before coming to Buford Oaks. Both neighborhoods are expected to receive slurry seal by the end of the week.

Thanks so much. the contractor is in our neighborhood now and it seems the sealant has been put down on 1/2 of the neighborhood. It looks nice and I hesitate to speak early, but I believe we're going to be very pleased with the work.

Thanks Fran for getting the word out to your neighbors about getting the cars off the road. Slurry seal can be a little sticky when first applied and it will need time to cure. Hopefully this will not cause any problems for drivers/pedestrians.

The road looks so much better and I really appreciate all you at VDOT did to improve it.

Fran

The contractor resurfaced all of Buford Oaks except for a large area in front of 2 houses yesterday. We had anticipated that it would be completed today, but they never returned. Will they be coming tomorrow(Thursday)?

Bad news, guys. The new surface isn't holding up. The cul de sac on Buford Oaks Lane is already in pretty bad shape. A garbage truck picked up a neighbor's trash, did a K-turn in the cul de sac (they all do) and devastated the surface. It's crumbling after only six days.

OH NO!!!! I'm getting so frustrated with this whole situation. I don't think VDOT is going to return to finish the areas they never resurfased. Well, if the road falls apart again we'll just call them back to doit again.

We're sending someone out there today to take a look at the road and determine what we can do.

Thank you for your quick response.

Harry Gewanter

You can see how the surface is breaking apart in the cul de sac of Buford Oaks Lane. I took this picture this at 6:45 a.m. If you press on it, even gently, it gives. So you can imagine what heavy garbage trucks - sheering and tight steering - do to it. (The mud tracks are from the church construction crew's light trucks.) VDOT did some peculiar things here... sort of fixing a pothole three times and three different ways... that may explain why this given spot is so bad. Anyway, I hope your cul de sacs fare better.

VDOT was suppose to come look at it yeterday. Haven't heard from them.

I walked around the neighborhood. Our cul de sac is the worst, but the one on Buford Oaks Circle doesn't look right, either..
It would be wise for VDOT, if only from a cost-effectiveness point of view, to rethink this slurry stuff. Here, at least, it's just not holding up.

Pleas come back and complete the work VDot started. The road in front of 8316 and in front of 8224 did not get the surface repair/ completion put down on it. Could you please finish this job?

I gave the wrong address for road work completion. It is not 8316. It is 8308 and 8224

I guess VDOT isn't going to come back and finish the job of paving in front of 8308 and 8224. I'd be glad to close this out once that area has been resurfaced.

I have requested that VDOT return to complete their job several times over the past 2 months. The area at 8308 and 8224 Buford Oaks Drive was never resurfaced for some odd reason. Please come fix it so we can close out this issue. Thank you

road work completed