N.Va. snubbed in first round of road funding
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
April 6, 2009
An initial round of stimulus dollars for road and bridge improvements has little in it for Northern Virginia.
The commonwealth is slated to receive about $700 million in highway funding through the $787 billion federal stimulus package. The Virginia Department of Transportation said it would pump $66.1 million of the money into shoring up or replacing deteriorating bridges and culverts and $110 million toward upgrading 436 miles of road surface.
Northern Virginia, despite its sore need for transportation dollars, will get only $920,000 to replace the Sand Branch and Butchers Creek bridges, both in Loudoun County, and $10.3 million for pavement restoration on roads in Prince William and Loudoun counties.
That money, said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer, was “not the total package.” He said the destination of the rest of the stimulus transportation dollars, including funds for improvements around military bases, such as Fort Belvoir, that have realignment projects, would be rolled out later this month.
The bridge money had to be routed to the most “structurally deficient” infrastructure around the state, Homer said, which means much of the funds go to rural VDOT districts such as Bristol and Lynchburg.
The scarcity of early stimulus funds for Northern Virginia irked Del. Dave Albo, R-Springfield, who was also disappointed by the overall lack of infrastructure spending in the stimulus plan.
“What it’s basically become is a funding package of roads to nowhere,” he said.
Local officials have long demanded more funds to upgrade the region’s traffic-clogged transportation network, which is increasingly showing signs of its age. Recently, a chunk of concrete broke loose from the Glebe Road overpass and fell onto Route 50 in Arlington County.
The transit portion of the stimulus pie was kinder to the D.C. suburbs. It included $202 million for Metro projects and $9.3 million for Virginia Railway Express.
Virginians are demanding far more in stimulus improvements than the government can accommodate. After Gov. Tim Kaine set up a Web site at stimulus.virginia.gov to take public input on ways to spend the money, $193 billion worth of suggestions came in just for transportation.
“There are a bunch of great ideas, but we’re not even close to satisfying those,” Homer said.
