REGION’S ROADS A FUNDING PRIORITY
Traffic projects top state rankings for improvement
Some Hampton Roads traffic headaches are first in line for funding under the state’s latest rankings.
That news came as state Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne warned that Virginia faces a major financial squeeze in financing road work.
As part of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s annual review of proposed projects, staff said traffic signals and improvements to keep pedestrians safe on Williamsburg’s Lafayette Street, with a modest $91,000 price tag, ranked first out of 433 projects statewide for funding next year.
Second was a $1.4 million project for improvements to the intersection of Battlefield Boulevard and Volvo Parkway in Chesapeake, while coordinating traffic signals and pedestrian improvements on Williamsburg’s Richmond Road ranked third and lane
improvements on Norfolk’s Ballentine Boulevard ranked fourth.
Virginia uses a scoring system that measures impacts on safety, traffic, the environment and economic development to rank projects for funding.
The final decisions on funding will be made by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.
The idea of the ranking system is to take the politics out of the scramble for limited state funds.
But new trends in fuel tax collections and road usage signal an even tighter financial squeeze, Layne told the Senate Finance Committee this week.
Even while the total number of miles driven on Virginia highways soared, fuel tax collections dipped — that’s the first time the two have moved in those opposite directions, Layne said.
One reason is that more drivers are shifting away from gasoline or dieselfueled cars and trucks to hybrids or electric vehicles. Relatively low prices for gas and diesel is another, since Virginia fuel taxes are now pegged at a percentage of fuel prices.
“We’re headed for a cliff,” Layne said. “Fuel taxes are slow, while usage of our roads and the wear and tear on them is going up.”
Layne said that means Virginia will need to look harder at using tolls to pay for highway construction. Tolls already generate nearly $750 million a year for Virginia roads, with private facilities such as the Elizabeth River Tunnels, South Norfolk Jordan Bridge and toll roads in Northern Virginia and Richmond accounting for roughly half that total.
Layne said the financial pressures won’t affect the widening of Interstate 64 now in progress on the Peninsula, or plans to expand the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. Half of the new plans coming with the bridge-tunnel expansion will be high occupancy toll lanes — as with the current I-64 express lanes, the idea is that drivers who are alone in their cars or trucks pay a toll. With a passenger in the vehicle, using the lanes will be free.
Legislators from western Virginia have proposed tolls to finance improvements on the region’s badly congested Interstate 81 highway backbone, an idea Gov. Ralph Northam supports. Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com