The Virginia Department of Transportation says it still has months of work ahead to complete repairs to roads and bridges damaged by Hurricane Helene.
Seven secondary and primary roads, including U. S. Route 58, and four bridges are still closed, according to a presentation given to the Commonwealth Transportation Board Wednesday morning. All but one of the closures are in VDOT's Bristol district, the region most hard-hit by Helene-related flooding.
John Scrivani, VDOT’s director of emergency management, said contract crews have three to six months of work ahead to remove debris and dangerous trees along state roads. Reconstruction of damaged roadways will take longer.
"We’re estimating about 12 months to complete all these repairs," Scrivani told the board. "It will take us up to three years to all the federal reimbursement that we’re trying to get back from the federal government."
VDOT has already spent $22 million on response efforts and expects the total cost of repair to be about $132 million. For now, the money is coming out of VDOT’s maintenance budget. But administrators expect most of it to be reimbursed by federal sources.
