Road priorities 2.0: Officials want to tweak computer rankings

CHESAPEAKE

Area transportation leaders want to overhaul a new computer ranking system designed to help elected officials prioritize spending on road, bridge and tunnel improvements.

An early version of the computer model picked widening many sections of Interstate 64, rebuilding Interstate 264 interchanges in Virginia Beach, and widening Holland Road in Suffolk as the top road priorities.

Expanding the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Midtown Tunnel were the top-ranked bridge and tunnel projects.

Although the model is being developed as a tool for the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization to choose projects that could win limited state and federal dollars, the stark reality of seeing a number assigned to a project without human input raised eyebrows. The group includes elected city, county and state officials.

When the initial rankings were released last month, Portsmouth Councilman Doug Smith said they made him "a little bit uneasy." Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said he was "uncomfortable," noting that the model placed the Midtown Tunnel expansion, the only tunnel project ready to move forward, as No. 2.

Dwight Farmer, executive director of the planning board, said the model should be revised so it "does not lock anyone into a ranking." Ultimately, he said, board members will set the priorities.

The board's Transportation Advisory Committee, made up mainly of city managers, agreed Thursday to explore revisions.

They want to try evaluating projects on three levels:

• Utility, which would include congestion relief, safety and connectivity.

• Viability, which factors in funding availability and planning readiness.

• And economic vitality. The last measure is the least developed so far but could include employment, tax collections and value-of-time-saved benefits.

The new criteria would indicate whether a project solves transportation problems, reflects financial realities and enhances economic competitiveness, Farmer said.

Each project would get three scores, and elected leaders would have to debate their merits to prioritize them.

The committee also suggested not numbering projects within the categories and instead using A, B, C grades, or high, medium, low rankings.

The planning staff and the Virginia Department of Transportation will make revisions and present them to the planning board as early as its January meeting.

VDOT is paying consultants Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. $150,000 for the work. The revisions will extend the contract, so VDOT and the planning agency need to work out additional payments.

"Once we get something done, I think our tool will be one of the most comprehensive and complex in the country," said Camelia Ravanbakht, deputy executive director of the planning organization.

She said Northern Virginia and Richmond are closely watching the work and have indicated they may adopt similar strategies. In Virginia, only Fredericksburg uses a technically based prioritization tool, Ravanbakht said.

To develop Hampton Roads' model, the planning organization turned to agencies in Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento and Atlanta that already use prioritization models. Ravanbakht said a growing number of metropolitan areas are developing similar tools for road projects because of rising transportation demands and declining revenues.

Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com