Gov. Bob McDonnell’s latest proposal to fund nearly 900 transportation projects could jump-start four stalled toll road projects in Virginia’s worst traffic areas: Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. About $1.5 billion is allocated to fund four toll road projects, including the Interstate 95/395 high-occupancy toll lanes. The projects account for 39 percent of Virginia Department of Transportation funds.
The funds represent about 25 percent of the funding for each project, according to Sean Connaughton, secretary of transportation. For a project like the HOT lanes, providing a portion of the financing can be enough to make the project more attractive to the private developer building the road. Officials anticipate steep construction costs to complete the new high-occupancy vehicle, bus and high-occupancy toll lanes stretching from Spotsylvania County to the Pentagon.
Each toll road is a public-private partnership between VDOT and a developer. The developer agrees to build and fund the road in exchange for collecting toll revenue. Given the state’s transportation funding crisis, it’s necessary for VDOT to contribute to the projects, according to Steve Titunik, spokesman for Virginia Megaprojects.
“We are putting up something, but we’re putting up far less than we would if we had to do it ourselves,” he said.
Partial funding of toll roads also can help drive down the price of tolls, according to Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
Experts say subsidizing the construction is an unorthodox way of funding the toll roads, but it may be the best way to get major road improvements completed in the current funding crisis.
“It’s not traditional to provide a subsidy for a toll road,” said Peter Samuel, editor of TOLLROADSnews. “Most toll projects are stand-alone projects, and the tolls are supposed to cover the costs.”
This isn’t the first time McDonnell has suggested toll lanes
— in 2010, he requested federal permission to place a toll on Interstate 95 near the border of North Carolina that would have raised funds for I-95 improvements.
