Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has ordered his transportation chief to focus on putting the scuttled Interstate 95/395 toll lanes “back on track,” hoping to revive the stalled project despite a lawsuit and financing troubles. McDonnell, speaking at a Tysons Corner luncheon, said Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton will prioritize resurrecting the high-occupancy toll lanes and rebuilding U.S. 460 in Hampton Roads. “He’s been working on that diligently,” McDonnell said. “And I know in the very near future we’ll have some announcements about some successes there.” The Kaine administration last year put the ambitious public-private partnership on hold, citing community concerns and problems securing financing. Arlington County has sued to stop the project, arguing the state conducted inadequate environmental study and that low-income and minority residents along the corridor would be harmed by new air pollution. A U.S. district court judge ruled this month the suit can move forward. Asked to elaborate on his comments on the toll lanes project, McDonnell acknowledged those challenges and declined to say if a breakthrough was on the horizon. “There is a lot of moving parts there,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t want to have it be on and off like was in the prior administration. When we get it back on, I want it to be on to stay.” The concerns of the I-95/395 HOT lanes are rooted in the flaws of a sister project on the Capital Beltway, said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. Among those criticisms, taxpayers will be shouldering a greater burden of the construction costs than once thought, with 75 years of toll revenue given away to a private operator. “It does not seem to be a well-structured deal from the perspective of the taxpayer, transit and carpoolers,” Schwartz said. “Those are the issues we’d like to see addressed in a very transparent and public process before we rush into any deal on I-95/395.”
