Funding delays I-66 improvement

The tone in the room was anything but cheery as plans for an improved Interstate 66 were discussed Wednesday.

Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer told a crowd of elected officials, transportation leaders and business owners that vision is lacking to solve the major problems facing the relatively narrow transportation corridor.

“When we thought about 66 in the mid-90s, we thought about adding reversible [High Occupancy Vehicle] lanes to the road, like we did on 95. It sounded like a good idea then but traffic patterns have dramatically changed,” said Homer.

Now, 55 percent of all cars on the road are headed into the city during the morning rush hour while 45 percent of them are headed away from it, Homer said. The reverse is true during the afternoon rush hour, he added.

Plans to fix the road have been discussed, but they are limited because the highway cannot be expanded inside the Beltway. An agreement struck when the road was built between Arlington officials and the Federal Highway Administration ensures the road cannot be expanded there.

Because space is tight, Homer called the extension of Metro rail to Centreville a “necessity” and said he will also look into adding High Occupancy Toll lanes to the highway. The toll lanes would work similarly to the ones being constructed now on the Beltway, where drivers would pay a variable toll to use the lanes.

The Beltway HOT lanes, from Springfield to the Dulles Toll Road, will be leased to an Australian-based firm that will own and operate them for about 80 years. A similar bid from the same firm aims to add HOT lanes to the I-395/95 corridors.

Homer also criticized the use of the shoulders along a portion of I-66 to expand capacity.

“Look, we have been getting by on the cheap for almost 20 years now. It’s time for us to face up and have a grown-up system of transportation,” he said.

But he also said the state’s business model for transportation, one where money is collected with a gas tax as well as fees, is not a healthy one.

Despite the fact that more drivers are returning to driving after last year’s record high gas prices forced them to park their cars, Homer said the respite cost the state $4.6 billion in funding. Another blow came last year when the Federal Highway Trust Fund ran out of money and defaulted on loans, he said.

Since that time, the state chose to reduce funding the Virginia Department of Transportation, lay off 1,450 full and part-time VDOT workers and close 19 of the state’s rest stops — moves that are estimated to save the state $54 million annually.

“It was an obvious business choice that has been hard publically,” said Homer.

Former state transportation secretary Del. Vivian Ward, D- 39th, dominated the question and answer session following Homer’s remarks.

A decision made when Mark Warner was governor, and one that has been continued through Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s administration, has robbed the state’s transportation trust fund of valuable construction dollars.

That fund was created during a 1986 special session of the House of Delegates. New taxes, such as the motor fuels tax, vehicle sales and use tax, car license tax and a retail sales and use tax, were created during the session to put money into the fund, said Watts.

Now, because of language in the state code, money that should be set aside for construction has been moved to the maintenance fund, relieving the state of its responsibility for new road construction.
“In 1986 you did have an ongoing construction program unlike today where it is virtually gone,” said Watts.

The state provides much, if not all, road funding for cities in the commonwealth, but growing counties like Prince William go underfunded, she said.

While Prince William County was allotted $7.4 million in state transportation money in 2008, it is projected to get nothing between 2011 and 2015.

Manassas and Manassas Park, which in 2008 were given a combined total of $2 million from the state for transportation, will get nothing next year.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.