According to the Virginian Pilot, the outlook for building and expanding roads in Hampton Roads keeps getting more bleak. During the next 30 years, the region likely will receive only about half of its previous long-range forecasts for road construction, according to transportation officials.

Hampton Roads can expect a total of $2.3 billion for road construction through 2040, according to John W. Lawson, financial planning director for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Lawson said that is "significantly" less than previous long-range projections, but he could not say how much less.

A rough estimate by the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization indicates that the $2.3 billion is about half of earlier projections - $77 million per year compared with $150 million per year. To put the number in perspective, the cost of building the Midtown Tunnel and Martin Luther King Freeway expansion project is about $2 billion.

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