Portsmouth seeks city's input on transportation plan

PORTSMOUTH

City leaders want residents to offer their input on a plan they hope could serve as a guide for overhauling transportation in Hampton Roads.

Portsmouth leaders have hired a Philadelphia-based consultant, Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC, to develop the plan and are holding three open houses this week to address it.

The plan is to go beyond vehicular traffic to also include a vision for transit, such as ferries, buses, rail and future light rail; sidewalks and bicycles; parking; and the movement of freight to and from port facilities.

Mayor James Holley sent a letter dated Oct. 29 to federal lawmakers, state legislators, City Council members and transportation officials informing them of the city's efforts. He said the plan could be a "starting point to guide a complete overhaul of the regional transportation plan."

"Our failure to properly maintain our current infrastructure as well as properly program and develop new infrastructures to provide for our region's growth is fast overtaking our ability to properly serve our Hampton Roads family and give them the tools needed to grow our region," the letter says.

The open houses come less than a month after the closure of the Jordan Bridge, which connected Chesapeake and Portsmouth. The bridge, which shut down Nov. 8, had deteriorated beyond repair, Chesapeake leaders said.

Its closure and the closure of Kings Highway Bridge in Suffolk are "two warning shots which are generally all one gets before the attack begins," Holley wrote in his letter. The Kings Highway Bridge closed in 2005.

The mayor also said in the letter that Hampton Roads' three regional tunnels - the Midtown, Downtown and Hampton Roads bridge-tunnels - have all either passed or are close to their 50 years of service-life expectancy.

Over the past few years, state leaders have not been able to reach a consensus on how to pay for the region's transportation needs.

Portsmouth Councilwoman Marlene Randall said that anything that allows traffic to move better will help, as long as the city looks out for residents ' interests.

Vice Mayor Bill Moody Jr. said it's important that Portsmouth is at the table during discussions about the Midtown Tunnel, which the city hopes could provide a link for light rail into the city and beyond.

"With that said, I'm not sure that our voice carries a lot of weight in the scheme of things" compared with Virginia Beach and Norfolk, Moody said. Those cities have an advantage because of their larger populations, he said.

Portsmouth leaders wrote in a request for proposals earlier this year that the city faces unique transportation challenges; i t is centrally located in a region divided by waterways.

Also, because it is a port city, local highways bring "a disproportionate amount" of regional traffic through Portsmouth, leading to congestion at the Downtown and Midtown tunnels and into city streets, Holley's letter states.

Trucks from Portsmouth Marine Terminal and APM Terminals also use city streets, as do employees from the Naval Medical Center and Norfolk Naval Shipyard, according to the letter.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com