Va. wants port to chip in to help improve U.S. 460

NORFOLK

The Virginia Port Authority might give up some of its state funding for capital projects to help pay for construction of a new U.S. 460.

The Port Authority's new board will consider an agreement today with the Virginia Department of Transportation that would direct about $5 million a year in state port funding to help the state pay for the cost of improving 460, Gov. Bob McDonnell's top transportation priority.

If approved, the agreement would cut the state's annual grant to the port to about $30 million from roughly $35 million, at today's funding levels. The Commonwealth Port Fund money comes from the state Transportation Trust Fund.

The Port Authority's contribution would begin July 1, 2013, and be capped at $250 million. It would continue "until the end of the concession term with the private entity developing and operating the project."

The state is seeking a private-sector partner to rebuild U.S. 460 between Suffolk and Petersburg as a limited access, four-lane divided highway at a cost of $1.44 billion to $1.8 billion. Virginia has committed up to $500 million toward the project.

VDOT has received three conceptual proposals that would require tolls from $5.50 to $11 for cars and as much as $75 for tandem tractor-trailers.

"The port has some very aggressive expansion plans at its terminals; however, we cannot sustain that expansion without better transportation links," said Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton on Monday. "We simply cannot send additional truck traffic through either of the bridge-tunnels or up 64. One of the primary reasons we're going to build this road is to support the port."

Detailed 460 proposals are due early next year, and VDOT's goal is to have an agreement by May to build the new 55-mile road south of the existing one. Construction is expected to take five years. McDonnell hopes it will serve as a model for public-private road construction partnerships in Virginia.

"Improving our transportation infrastructure is important to us," said Art Moye, executive vice president of the Virginia Maritime Association, which represents port stakeholders. The group supports the port's U.S. 460 funding "provided that it goes for what it's being dedicated to," he said.

The 460 funding agreement is part of a packed agenda the newly configured Port Authority board will take up, a little more than two months after McDonnell replaced 10 of the 12 members on the board.

The agenda includes nearly a dozen closed sessions, including committee meetings that start at 8 a.m., which the new chairman said were necessary to bring the new members of the panel up to speed on confidential business matters.

"It's kind of like we're in and out of executive sessions way too much for my way of doing business with a public entity," said Michael J. Quillen, the new board chairman and the only member of the previous board - aside from the state treasurer - to keep his seat. "But we're trying to educate these new commissioners that have a ton of questions."

A little less than a month ago, the new board held a closed retreat to allow briefings by port executives that included proprietary financial information.

"Obviously, we didn't have enough time," Quillen said. "We're trying to go back over eons of history here."

The board also will weigh proposed retirement-incentive offers for Port Authority law-enforcement employees as well as non-law-enforcement workers.

The proposals are from the Port Authority's executive management group, in response to a board request to look at ways to cut costs, Quillen said.

He said he couldn't speculate on whether the board would act on the proposals today, but he said that the board was going to have to make "some kind of definitive statement" on where it stands regarding the early retirement offers.

The Port Authority has 126 total employees - 84 law enforcement and 42 non-law enforcement. Port officials declined to say how many workers were eligible in either category because some of the criteria could change.

Pilot writer Debbie Messina contributed to this report.

Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com