Virginia to have $1.1 billion less for roads in next six years

With a faltering economy and holes blown into last year’s landmark transportation plan, Virginia will have $1.1 billion less to spend on roads in the next six years.

Hit especially hard are the three key sources of money the region relies on to improve roads that handle the bulk of its traffic. Spending there will decline 44 percent on average.

“Forty-four percent is close to half of our construction money for urban, secondary and primary programs,” said Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer . “That’s a very significant loss of funding.”

A deflating housing market, a dip in automobile sales and the elimination of the abusive-driver fees generally are blamed for the decline in state revenues.

A recent Virginia Supreme Court ruling denying regional transportation authorities the power to levy taxes is not related to this portion of the state’s financial picture.

Transportation planners had been warned that leaner times were ahead, but now, a week after Virginia lawmakers approved a $77 billion budget, they are reviewing specific projects to determine which ones will have to wait longer.

The decline is a bitter pill for cities that had seen a brief improvement in local funding after the transportation bill brought the first significant infusion of new money for roads and rail projects in two decades.

“The primary, secondary and urban funds are at 25 percent of their high marks of 15 years ago,” said Dwight Farmer , deputy executive director for transportation at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. “When you account for inflation, we’re getting one-tenth of what we were getting in the early 1990s.”

The final decision on what projects to fund will come in June when the Commonwealth Transportation Board votes on its six-year budget.

Until then, city officials across Hampton Roads will again have to delay local road projects, raising the possibility that some improvements may never be built because inflation will outstrip the state’s ability to save up money.

Virginia’s road transportation budgets are essentially divided into large spending pots for construction and maintenance.

Hampton Roads engineers will see the greatest impact in the general area of construction spending because that category feeds the primary, secondary and urban programs.

Transit funding will suffer a 10 percent reduction, while interstate construction is expected to remain constant, assuming federal support does not falter, officials have said.

Interstate maintenance is relatively safe because by law it must be funded first. When there is a funding shortage, as there is today, then money is taken from the construction budget to bridge the gap.

But in the cities where state money is crucial for ongoing road work, the projected declined will hit hard.

John M. Keifer , Norfolk’s director of public works, said he expects further delays in the planned widening of Military Highway near Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital.

That $95 million plan would alleviate congestion between Robin Hood and Lowery roads with more travel lanes and a rebuilt interchange at Robin Hood near Norfolk International Airport.

The project has been a Norfolk priority since the late 1980s, but continual shortages of state money have kept the plans in limbo. The shortage of money is expected to delay beyond 2015 the project’s start date, Keifer said.

For about a decade, Portsmouth has been saving money for an $11.6 million widening of Turnpike Road between Frederick Boulevard and Constitution Avenue but has to delay the work until money is in hand.

“It’s been part of our long range plan since 1986,” said Richard Hartman , Portsmouth’s city engineer.

All of Portsmouth’s urban allocation money is devoted to repaying the state for rebuilding the Pinners Point interchange, completed in 2005.

John Fowler , the city engineer in Virginia Beach, said the planned reductions will allow the city and VDOT to keep alive about half a dozen of its top 14 urban projects.

Construction on Birdneck Road and Lynnhaven Parkway will continue, he said, as will planning for Nimmo Parkway, Princess Anne from Dam Neck Road to the Municipal Center, and an improved Princess Anne Road/Kempsville Road intersection.

“Jobs that have been deferred for some time are just going to be delayed again,” he said. “We’re talking about prioritizing the priorities now.”

Despite the new budget, local lawmakers have said they will push for repairs to the tattered transportation plan.

The delegation representing Hampton Roads is scheduled to meet Thursday, April 3, in Suffolk to discuss transportation should Gov. Tim Kaine call for another special session on the subject.

Even if the Hampton Roads lawmakers can agree on a plan, they may find it difficult to win approval in the House. GOP leaders are skeptical of any plan to raise taxes, particularly if it requires state approval.

“That would be extremely difficult to get out of the House,” House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith , R-Salem, said Tuesday.

Staff Writer Warren Fiske contributed to this report.

Tom Holden, (757) 446-2331, tom.holden@pilotonline.com