Route 3 Sees Expansion from ARRA Funds

By Staff Reports on 28 October 2009

I-95 entering Virginia from North Carolina

Governor Timothy M. Kaine today helped break ground on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) project to widen more than 10 lane miles of Route 3 in Spotsylvania County. The project will be paid for with more than $25 million in ARRA funds.

“This is a great example of the type of job the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was intended to move forward, and it would not have been possible without the support of the President and Congress,” Governor Kaine said. “This project will put people to work, and it will pay benefits to the region and to commuters for years to come.”

The Route 3 widening project has long been planned, but the Commonwealth Transportation Board was forced to cancel it because of reductions in traditional sources of state revenue.

The project, which is being administered by Spotsylvania County, will add 10.3 new lane miles to Route 3 from Gordon Road to Rutherford Drive. The total cost of the project is $26.7 million with $25.2 million in ARRA funds. Based on national figures, every billion dollars of infrastructure investment generates approximately 28,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The remaining design work will begin within weeks with right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation to start later this year. Construction is scheduled to start in April 2010 and the project is scheduled to be completed in summer of 2012.

The project will remove an existing bottleneck by widening a four-lane section of Route 3 to six lanes. Route 3 on either side of this section has six travel lanes.

Spotsylvania awarded the project to Henderson Construction Company, a business based in the Fredericksburg that was founded in 1954.

The widening of Route 3 is one of several ARRA projects in the area. Others include: