Road projects put off
By Monty Tayloe
The Virginia Department of Transportation's proposed six-year budget includes more than $1 billion in cuts to statewide spending on road improvements.
Northern Virginia was already reeling from the state Supreme Court decision that struck down taxes that would have brought $300 million a year in transportation funding, and the proposed cuts add to an already long list of needed projects that won't begin construction anytime soon.
“The impact of this downturn is greater in Northern Virginia. ... They leveraged their regional transportation funds alongside state funds,” said Pierce Homer, Virginia Secretary of Transportation.
This perfect storm of funding cuts has been the death knell, or at least the delay knell, for many projects important to Northern Virginia's transportation network.
The intersection of Fairfax County Parkway and Fair Lakes Parkway is a notorious bottleneck and was slated to be turned into an interchange. However, $28 million of the project's funding was to have come from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority fees that were struck down.
With the NVTA money in doubt, VDOT funds would not have been enough for the interchange and, according to the proposed Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan, the project won't begin construction until at least 2014.
“Right now there is no construction date. ... The biggest cuts are to secondary roads, said VDOT spokeswoman Joan Morris.
Other projects that have been cut include widening Telegraph Road and Rolling Road in Fairfax County and Route 7 in Leesburg. The full proposed VDOT six-year plan is available at www.virginiadot.com.
The big cause of the new funding shortfalls is rising fuel costs. Gas prices have increased costs across the board in the state budget, and drive up the prices of VDOT's projects. As the projects are put on hold due to a lack of funding, fuel and construction costs continue to rise, making the projects harder and harder to fund.
Fairfax County board chairman Gerry Connolly believes the cuts run deeper than individual road projects.
“If the state doesn't do something, there will be no matching federal dollars for highway construction, and then we're in big trouble,” Connolly said.
According to Connolly, the budget costs mean the sole new investment in transportation in Fairfax County comes from an 11-cent increase in the commercial tax rate, expected to generate just over $50 million.
“That still leaves a huge deficit; the General Assembly has to act,” Connolly said.
There's still the possibility that the General Assembly could find a way to replace the NVTA funding. After a contentious budget approval process, the General Assembly put transportation funding aside, and Gov. Tim Kaine (D) has said that he will call a special session to address transportation. Northern Virginia's delegation and the governor have pledged to find a way to make up for the money lost in the NVTA court decision in February.
“Northern Virginia creates more than half of the tax revenue of the state. ... If the transportation investments aren't there, there's gonna be consequences,” said NVTA Chairman Chris Zimmerman.
Northern Virginia's only other chance to save crucial transportation projects will come at the series of public meetings VDOT will hold on the proposed budget. The local hearing is on May 14 at the Northern Virginia Community College Annandale campus.
Email the reporter at mtayloe@timespapers.com