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State courts bidders for new U.S. 460

VDOT is hoping to coax private developers to bid on the chance to build and operate a new multibillion-dollar U.S. 460 as a toll road. To drum up interest, the state is offering cash and other incentives.

Without an offer of public funds, the project has gone nowhere. Officials hope the promise of a public partnership will stimulate interest.

The new U.S. 460 will be a  55-mile, four-lane, divided highway between Suffolk and Petersburg. 

Read more from The Virginian-Pilot....

Posted on Thursday, July 22, 2010 - 6:59pm

Area planning board chooses site for interchange

The Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's board will submit an Interchange Justification Report to the Virginia Department of Transportation. VDOT will review the report and determine whether to submit it to the Federal Highway Administration.

The report recommends that the interchange be built on land between the river and the Virginia Welcome Center and rest area. Ultimately, plans call for a toll road to connect to the interchange, serving as a State Route 3 bypass between I-95 and Gordon Road.

Read more in The Freelance-Star....

Posted on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - 8:39pm

Hampton Roads travel troubles expected to worsen

photo by Burning ImageRush hours in Hampton Roads currently see 12% of the region's primary routes severely clogged,  according to the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization. Officials say 29% will be jammed by 2030 -- and that's assuming that major projects now on the drawing board are completed.

"The numbers don't surprise me at all," said Commonwealth Transportation Board member Aubrey Layne of Virginia Beach. "In Hampton Roads, we have $19 billion in needs... and just $2.3 billion to spend" in the next 30 years.

Read more in The Virginian-Pilot....

Posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 - 8:40pm

Funding in peril for Culpeper's outer loop road

Funding for Culpeper’s outer loop road may come up short because the state has slashed the 2011 fund-matching revenue sharing program from $50 million to $15 million. The funding program may be eliminated entirely in 2012.

The outer loop road would be a 2.5 mile connection between Eggbornsville Road and U.S. 522, and would hopefully reduce traffic through the town. Later on, the road could be extended to the south and widened to four lanes, connecting with U.S. 29 at a new interchange.

Transportation issues affect homeowners directly as they move about their daily lives, and can later impact property values. Easily accessible, convenient transportation options are attractive to prospective homebuyers.

Read more in The Culpeper Star-Exponent....

Posted on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - 11:37am

VDOT's funding far short of what it needs

photo by majcherThe Virginia Department of Transportation needs $709 million to maintain state highways next year, but it's budget is only $318.2 million. "We're beating the existing lane-miles to death," said J. Douglas Koelemay, a Commonwealth Transportation Board member from Springfield. "We don't even have the resources to do what we say our priorities are."

VDOT officials say a fifth of Virginia's interstate highways and almost a third of all state-maintained secondary roads are deficient. "Thirty percent substandard," transportation board member James A. Davis of Winchester said of the secondary roads, "and we don't have money to keep them from getting worse."

Transportation infrastructure can be be an important factor for home buyers, and can therefor have an impact on home value.

Read more in the Richmond Times-Dispatch....

Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 11:33am

Fairfax County faces $2.2 billion transportation funding shortfall

Fairfax County is grappling with how to deal with a $2.2 billion transportation funding shortfall over the next three years. The shortfall will grow to more than $5 billion during the next 10 years.

"I don't think it's a matter of how Fairfax County is going to make this up, but how the state, the region and the county are going to make this up," said Fairfax Transportation Director Kathy Ichter. However, local residents and businesses should expect to shoulder some o the costs.

The county board of supervisors is considering ways to raise funds, including imposing a county-wide meals tax, pulling money from the county's general fund, increasing commercial and industrial real estate taxes, and creating new special taxing districts.

Homeowners benefit from the expansion and maintenance of transportation infrastructure, as it makes commuting between their homes and business and retail locations more convenient. That convenience can translate into higher home values when it's time to sell.

Read more in The Washington Examiner....

Posted on Tuesday, June 8, 2010 - 9:16am

VRE express train could bypass county stops

Prince William County, Va. - A plan to run an express commuter train from Fredericksburg to Washington, operated by Virginia Railway Express, drew criticism at this week's Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting. At a cost of about a $500,000 already in VRE's 2011 budget, the train could begin operating in July. The express, which would get riders to Washington's Union Station 25 minutes faster than any other VRE train, would be the first train to leave Fredericksburg, at 5:05 a.m.

It would stop twice in Stafford County and then make stops at Alexandria, Crystal City, L'Enfant Plaza and Union Station, skipping the five stations in Quantico, Prince William and Fairfax counties. Passengers who board VRE trains at the Woodbridge station have long faced standing-room-only conditions.

VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said there was "not a lot of clamor from residents of Prince William County for the express train," but there is very high demand from riders who live "in the further extremities," like Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, who aim to get to work earlier.


Read the full story...

Posted on Thursday, March 4, 2010 - 12:09pm

Get used to the gridlock: Long-range road funds lacking

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.


Read the full story...

Posted on Thursday, March 4, 2010 - 11:48am

Richmond-Hampton Roads high speed rail plan approved

According to the Daily Press, the Commonwealth Transportation Board has approved a plan to bring high-speed rail to South Hampton Roads and enhance existing passenger rail on the Peninsula. The vote gives final state approval to the proposal endorsed by the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, which sets transportation goals for the region. The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation will now apply for federal funding for the rail line, which would bring trains from South Hampton Roads to Richmond at speeds of up to 90 mph. Regular passenger rail service via Amtrak on the Peninsula averages around 79 mph. The goal is to ultimately build a system that will allow quick travel from the region to Washington, D.C., without changing trains.

 

Read the full story...

Posted on Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 11:36am

VDOT Reassures Public on Snow Removal

The Virginia Department of Transportation has amassed its resources and is ready to address yet another major winter storm expected to impact much of Virginia on Friday and Saturday. VDOT crews are still completing cleanup efforts from two other winter storms that impacted parts of the commonwealth in the past week. As of February 1, VDOT has already expended the $79 million budgeted for statewide snow-removal efforts this year and has now tapped into emergency maintenance reserve funds to pay for snow removal. “We will not reduce service levels or scale back on snow-removal efforts regardless of how much it costs this year," said Gregory Whirley, acting commissioner.This will hopefully allay the concerns of many homeowners wondering whether the state's current budget woes would impact core services this early in the year.

 

Read the full Gainesville Times story...

Posted on Friday, February 5, 2010 - 2:53pm