Fairfax County leaders hope a newly discovered, $1 billion cache of state transportation funds will jump-start a number of local road and rail improvement projects.
The Fairfax Board of Supervisors plans to ask the state of Virginia for roughly $340 million to pay for transportation projects the county says are urgently needed, including Interstate 66 improvements, “Phase 2” of rail construction to Washington Dulles International Airport, and a number of neglected maintenance measures on local roadways.
“We think there’s a huge maintenance issue that has to be addressed with this money,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay, D-Lee, outlining the need to stripe crosswalks, repave roads and repair sidewalks throughout the county.
Board Chairwoman Sharon Bulova agreed.
“It’s become more than an aesthetic issue, it’s a public safety concern,” she said, emphasizing the deteriorating condition of many of the county’s roadways.
State officials recently discovered the unused transportation funds after conducting a months-long internal audit. And Fairfax County, where traffic congestion is approaching debilitating levels, could use the cash.
Many of the projects listed on the board’s priority list are interstate projects, including a $27 million “active traffic management” system to help ease congestion on I-66, and $40 million worth of ramp improvements and additions on Interstate 95.
Other projects have to do with improving local roads around Fort Belvoir, which is set to absorb roughly 20,000 new Defense Department employees beginning next year.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has said the state will provide funding for transportation projects that reduce congestion and encourage economic development, and said he expects to award between $800 million and $900 million by the end of the year.
McKay said he thought many of the projects on the county’s list fit the governor’s bill.
“I think the goal of the governor is to do projects that can be built now, and I believe most of these projects can be started right away,” McKay said.
Phase 2 of Dulles rail is not slated to begin immediately, but local officials are scrambling to identify funding after new project estimates came in more than $1 billion higher than expected.
But Bulova said the county’s request for $100 million for the Dulles rail project should come as no surprise to Richmond.
“That $100 million is an amount of money we’ve known from the beginning would be needed to close the gap between the Dulles Toll Road money and [revenues from] the county’s special tax district. That’s not a surprise figure,” she said.
