A regional transportation board voted Wednesday to delay a slew of road and transit projects in Northern Virginia because state lawmakers failed to agree on a way to fund them during an emergency legislative session this month.
The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board — which must sign off on projects for them to move forward — passed a six-year rolling transportation plan that delayed or nixed projects in every Northern Virginia jurisdiction and for the Virginia Railway Express commuter train.
The widening of a congested and rapidly developing stretch of Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria will be pushed from 2009 to 2011 under the new plan, and a long-awaited project to establish a streetcar line along Columbia Pike in Arlington will be pushed from 2014 to 2016.
VRE was slated to receive seven replacement railcars in 2010, but that has been postponed indefinitely.
“The people who will suffer most are those in Prince William and Loudoun counties,” said Ronald Kirby, the board’s director of transportation. “That’s where the congestion, the pain, is going to be felt more than in the other jurisdictions.”
Both counties have seen development and population booms that have outpaced their infrastructure, and both are facing severely dwindling coffers in the wake of a housing crisis that has depleted county property tax revenue.
Prince William will lose projects to widen stretches of Route 1, Route 28 and Prince William County Parkway, as well as the construction of a boulevard between Hornbaker Road and Wellington Road. The widening of Minnieville Road will be delayed from 2012 to 2013.
In Loudoun, the construction of South Collector Road from Route 690 to Route 7 and the widening of a portion of Route 15 will be delayed from 2011 to 2015. The construction of the Route 15 Bypass interchange at Edwards Ferry Road and the construction of the Route 7/Route 659 interchange will be delayed from 2015 to 2020.
Projects on the chopping block could be rescued if the local governments are able to scrape together money for them, Kirby said.
“There will be a big effort I think to find funding for some of the high-priority projects,” he said.
Arlington County Board Member Chris Zimmerman said the county is already putting together a funding plan for its projects.
