The Virginian-Pilot
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The outlook for building and expanding roads in Hampton Roads keeps getting more bleak.
During the next 30 years, the region likely will receive only about half of its previous long-range forecasts for road construction, according to transportation officials.
Hampton Roads can expect a total of $2.3 billion for road construction through 2040, according to John W. Lawson, financial planning director for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Lawson said that is "significantly" less than previous long-range projections, but he could not say how much less.
A rough estimate by the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization indicates that the $2.3 billion is about half of earlier projections - $77 million per year compared with $150 million per year.
To put the number in perspective, the cost of building the Midtown Tunnel and Martin Luther King Freeway expansion project is about $2 billion.
VDOT is close to finalizing a deal with a private consortium that has proposed to build and fund it through tolls.
"That figure isn't even remotely adequate to address our current needs and future needs," said Dwight Farmer, executive director of the planning group. "Without sounding like the sky is falling, it presents us with a future transportation system that will be near total gridlock."
Lawson presented his forecast to the planning group's technical advisory committee Wednesday.
Also at the meeting, the planning staff presented a new report that shows local congestion worsening. One-third of Hampton Roads' interstates and freeways operate at severe levels of congestion during peak afternoon hours; one-10th of major arteries operate at that level.
"We've already crossed over the point of not being able to stave off the severe congestion," Farmer said.
"It sounds dire," Aubrey Layne, a Commonwealth Transportation Board member who represents Hampton Roads, said after hearing the numbers. "I think we need to come to the realization that we're going to have to look at alternatives to relieve our congestion.... We're going to have to find a way to leverage those monies."
Layne said the state will need to seek more public-private partnerships to build roads - partnerships that generally require tolls - and to consider more transit options such as light rail, bus rapid transit and high-speed rail, for which there's federal funding.
The grim long-range outlook perpetuates the current state of transportation funding in Virginia. About $4.6 billion has been cut from the state's operating and six-year transportation budgets in the past year and a half because of declining revenue.
The major sources of transportation revenue are the gas tax and portions of the general sales tax and motor vehicle sales tax.
Transportation revenue funds not only new construction but also road maintenance. Maintenance is consuming larger chunks of the transportation pot as the cost of materials, such as asphalt and steel, escalate and as the repair needs grow with an aging road network.
While Hampton Roads is expected to get $2.3 billion in construction money through 2040, the region will get more than $16 billion for maintenance during the same period, Lawson said.
"We are a big user of maintenance dollars because of all our bridges and tunnels, which are expensive to maintain," Layne said. "We need to make sure we can take care of what we have."
Layne said the region needs to protect its maintenance dollars or else face closures - two bridges in Hampton Roads were closed in recent years because they became structurally unsafe and there was no money to repair them.
"Until legislators give us more revenue, this is where we are," he said. "I'm not happy about it."
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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The Island of Good Government
Living amid a sea of government without the foresight to plan for the future, its pleasent too see the progress in Norfolk.
While misaligned by the opinions of those unable to see the future, the Tide continues to move forward to create light in a gathering storm of funding disasters spurred on by the financial failures of America at large.
Norfolk, the jobs center of Hampton Roads, will continue to grow while her sister cities stagnate in the morass of traffic congestion. Unless, of course, the six offsprings join the federal largeness and follow the light rail path.
Well said
Yes, it is, but make no mistake about it, the Norfolk light rail system will only reach its full potential when the Beach section is completed which will connect the Oceanfront, NAS Oceana, Lynnhaven, the Town Center, and Newtown to NSU, high speed rail at Harbor Park, downtown and the medical complex. Norfolk showed the courage to move ahead, but the Beach has done much in regard to the planning of the SGA's, the revisions to its comprehensive plan, and of course, the creation of Town Center which is now in need of light rail service to reach its full potential. Then, connections to ODU, the Naval Base, and the airport should proceed. The I-264 corridor is the key, and with the dearth of money for roads and bridges, light rail and public transit become all the more important. As you imply, the suburban life style will become increasingly unsustainable, and thee cities that realize that and plan accordingly will thrive.
Virginia Beach citizens will
Virginia Beach citizens will be bankrupt by then Mike. no one, except you, will be able to afford to ride it after the city commits to this financial albatros. Then with all the new taxes and fees implemented along with the hike in real estate taxes to pay for it, then some of us will be living on the light rail cars. As you say Mikey, most of us will be left sitting on the dock of the bay eating cake.
Policy of reneging
Clearly Keith you prefer to ignore the facts of the situation and to use scare tactics and a gloom and doom attitude to color you view of the situation. Perhaps you just like to forget that the Beach has the lowest real estate tax rate in the region, and that is so because our city council has planned ahead, developed strategic growth areas, defined implementation plans for some of them and is working hand in hand with residents and other interested parties for the others. The Commonwealth is simply out of the local road building business, and is considering the abandonment of state routes to save you further tax money. So if we are to deal with conditions within the Beach and the region, we will need to become even more self reliant, and that means a proactive stance toward transportation sytems. Light rail, high speed rail, and local support for roads will become more and more important as the Commonwealth reneges on its traditional roll for many local services.
Gloom and Doom?
Would you like me to link to each post where you say something like:
The kids will starve
There will be no more Libraries
The roads will fail
Bridges will crumble
Police will be out of work
FireFighters will no longer exist
The sky will fall
They'll take away my 06 Pension... ;-)
You're the king of the Sky is Falling Mike.
On the contrary Mike
Who has been sauing that the grass has grown so high that you can't see the signs, or that all the rest stops are now closed? Plahheeze. It's not true. VB may have the "lowest" rates, but it has some of the highest assessments. For the first time in the 11 years I have lived in my house, my assessment has gone down. Not by much, but it is less. Now the city is poised to jack the rates back up enough to get another 15% more than my highest assessment. They were spending like drunken developers two years ago. Now they are going broke like the rest of us, but they have the means and power to take what they want. If they would stick to the proper functions of government instead of the functions of developers, then there would be no financial crisis.
From our estemmed developer
"That is what happens when we elect anti tax Delegates who owe their allegiance to a political ideology instead of to us, the citizens of Virginia." So Mike, it's kinda like when we elected democrat majority in congress and a democrat president with the change we can't believe in. They they were going to: Close Gitmo; end the war in Iraq; repeal The Patriot Act; balance the budget; reduce the deficit; etc..Politicians tell potential voters what they want to hear. It depends on your point of view.-"Fact is, or course, we are not over taxed, nor is the tax burden increasing; in fact, it is decreasing." - Rubbish!You have your pronouns misplaced. Of course you feel 'we' are not over taxed. YOU are a retired 06 drawing a pretty good pension as well as a CEO of a company. You are probably pretty comfortable with your income so you don't do without and the tax increases imposed on you would be nothing compared to someone else. One size doesn't fit all.
Difference of opinion
Touche' Keith, but I do not agree that the President is ideologically driven; in fact, I do think he is a pragmatic centrist. McDonnell, on the other hand, ran as a moderate, and fooled the independents, but in fact, he is your hero; that is, to the right of Atilla the Hun. When you pledge allegiance to Grover Norquist and adopt the no new taxes pledge, you simply cannot be pragmatic at all, lest you end up on Norquist's target list. Of course, for you, he is just doing what he said he would do. For me, he has already abandoned his most important pledge, that is, to fix transportation, and the lack of concern for the state's most vulnerable, that is, the sick, the infirmed, the elderly, the disabled, the children, and those who care for them, is repulsive. When a Governor and Legislature show such little regard for those who need help the most, I question why they deserve to be in office.
Well Mike, fact is that YOUR
Well Mike, fact is that YOUR candidate only got 41% of the vote. Hence that sent a message that the citizens of the commonwealth were tired of tax and spend obstructionist government. Don't you think that if the citizens of the commonwealth decide the HOD is not doing it's job they would vote them out? You continiously bring out the fact that when "our representatives" vote in the majority for something that you agree wth, then that is the opinion of the whole commonwealth. If you disagree, then voters are morons for electing these "Norquist" delegates. I have come to the conclusion that McDonnell is doing what should have been done a long time ago. Government has gotten too big and it needs to be brought under control. Particularly in this economy. Feel free to stoke a check to the state treasury as you seem to have money you don't need.
You can't expect instant turnaround on a long term problem
This is a problem that has been more than a half-century in the making, and you're expecting a government that has been in charge for barely a year to have fixed it by now? When they don't have any direct control over the mechanisms that do fix the problem?
And I thought I was expecting a lot from Obama.
This problem is the result of city planning that expects everyone to have a personal automobile, and people buying bigger and bigger cars that take up more and more room on the roads, with only the driver in the car. When everyone is selfish there is less to share, and Va. Beach is almost to the point where there is nothing left of the roads to share.