Virginia on Wednesday signed off on a new six-year transportation plan that would pump billions of dollars into the state’s depleted road system, including funds for Northern Virginia projects like Interstate 66 and various road widenings in the region.
The state shaved about $4 billion from its program over the last several years, but Gov. Bob McDonnell won General Assembly approval for a transportation package that helped increase funding for transportation projects by $2.8 billion over the next six years.
“There’s just so many things in there that will be helpful for Northern Virginia,” said Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax. “There will be some people complaining about backups, but there will be backups because of construction.”
The Commonwealth Transportation Board did vote to strip out money that had been slated for Northern Virginia localities to purchase hybrid vehicles.
Northern Virginia projects include:
• I-66 active traffic management system – To implement the latest traffic management technology to ease congestion on I-66. Cost: $32 million. Begins: 2012.
• Route 7 in Fairfax County – Design for widening to six lanes from Reston Avenue to 0.1 miles west of Lewinsville Road. Cost: $30 million.
But projects to be funded include an active traffic management system that would warn drivers of traffic backups to help relieve congestion on I-66 and the widening of a 5.3-mile stretch of Route 7 from Reston Avenue to Route 694.
There is also $1.4 billion available for major public-private projects, which includes a recently announced plan to build 29 miles of high-occupancy toll/high-occupancy vehicle lanes on I-95 from Fairfax County to Stafford County.
One of the contractors charged with adding the toll lanes recently threatened to pull out of the project if state officials took more than a year to complete an environmental review. But Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton said that a contract should be signed by year’s end so construction could begin next year.
Still, Northern Virginia lawmakers point out that even though the General Assembly approved a transit study with funding from the McDonnell administration along Route 1, there could still be more money allocated. About $35 million was, in fact, included to widen the road in Prince William County in the plan.
But Del. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, said that widening Route 1 between the Beltway and the Woodlawn historical site would cost as much as $900 million.
“Until we get serious about funding transportation in this state, projects like that are going to get put on the back burner,” he said.
mailto:[email protected] “>[email protected]
