In Chesapeake dollars are 'saved,' but at the risk of lives

City and state officials have known for years about the deficiencies on Dominion Boulevard in Chesapeake. Yet, in the twisted logic that passes for leadership, elected officials have repeatedly refused to spend the money needed to fix Dominion, its treacherous shoulders and the narrow Steel Bridge.

As an inescapable result, people have died, property has been destroyed and money has been wasted.

The state and the city require tax dollars to fulfill a core responsibility: providing safe, efficient roads and evacuation routes. Time and time again, however, Dominion's shortcomings have been neglected for lack of money and the political will to raise it. Meanwhile, lives are put at risk as key thoroughfares handle thousands more cars and trucks than they were originally designed for.

Plainly, it does no good to protect motorists from taxes if they can't make it home safely.

Here's a case in point: Officials in Chesapeake now say it could cost $2 million to pave the rutted shoulders on a 5-mile stretch of Dominion Boulevard, according to an article by The Pilot's Mike Saewitz. But the city already has agreed to a $4.3 million settlement stemming from a 2006 traffic accident in which the plaintiffs' contend the shoulders were a primary cause. Two teens were seriously injured; one was in a coma for weeks.

About $3.3 million of the settlement is covered by insurance; still, that's a horrible calculus officials have made.

The teens' attorneys say that workers did little to fix Dominion, also known as U.S. 17, until residents complained. Over the past five years, there were more than 1,100 accidents on a 6-mile stretch of the road.

There's not much reason to think the situation will change. After Gov. Tim Kaine called a special session on transportation, state lawmakers went on vacation this week rather than find a comprehensive solution to paying for road maintenance. That was after Kaine's proposed $1.1 billion tax increase could find almost no support.

Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court killed funding for regional transportation authorities - a much-maligned plan forged after significant labor pains. Imperfect as it was, that plan would have at least helped raise the $320 million needed to replace the Steel Bridge and widen Dominion from two lanes to four.

Such dithering and blame-shifting have consequences - injuries, deaths, damage. Chesapeake residents deserve better than this. So do motorists all across Virginia.