Goochland Urges Residents to Buy Gas Locally for Road Funding

A fill-up in Goochland now carries a direct promise: some of the gasoline tax comes back as road money for projects residents use every day.

The county used the week before Memorial Day to press that message hard, tying local pump purchases to transportation work funded through the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. Goochland County says 50% of the gasoline taxes collected through CVTA are returned to localities for transportation projects, and the county says it has received $13.3 million from the authority since 2020, with the amount rising year after year.

That money matters in a county where rural roads, commuter corridors, school routes and business-access roads all compete for the same limited dollars. Goochland’s transportation department advises the Board of Supervisors, county administration, the Planning Commission, residents and businesses on land-use and road-improvement issues, and it works with the Virginia Department of Transportation to study and seek funding for projects. VDOT maintains all public roads in the county, which makes the local funding mix even more important when new work needs to move from plans to pavement.

The county points to the Fairground Road and Route 522 roundabout as a visible example of what that funding can produce. Goochland described the project as a single-lane roundabout meant to ease rush-hour congestion and create a safer intersection than the old T-intersection. County materials put preliminary engineering in 2019 and 2020, right-of-way acquisition in 2020, and construction from July 2022 through October 2023. The county later said VDOT’s contractor was finishing the work and preparing to open it.

Another major piece is the Fairgrounds Road extension, planned to carry Fairground Road from the Route 522 roundabout to Route 6. One county notice said the project was expected to go to advertisement in spring 2026 and finish in spring 2028. A separate project page lists preliminary engineering from 2023 to 2025, right-of-way acquisition from 2025 to 2026, and construction from 2027 to 2029. However the phases are timed, the goal is the same: connect growing parts of the county with a safer, more direct route.

Goochland says it has secured more than $127 million in transportation funding for future projects, including the I-64 Ashland Road interchange improvements, Route 288 improvements, the Oilville Road and I-64 interchange improvement, the Fairground Road extension and Hockett Road realignment. Its transportation projects page also lists work still seeking state, regional and federal money, among them Cardwell Road and Broad Street Road intersection improvements, a Route 288 northbound auxiliary lane, Ashland Road widening, Hockett Road and Route 6 intersection improvements, River Road and Route 6 intersection improvements, Rockville Road improvements and a Courthouse sidewalk phase.

The county’s pitch was straightforward: buying gas locally helps feed a system that is already paying for roundabouts, interchanges and widening projects, and in Goochland that system is now built into how the county plans for growth, safety and daily travel.