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When
friends stopped me on the sidewalk, also known as
a pedestrian-friendly environment, this week to
ask what it’s like to be a member of the
Commonwealth Transportation Board, I’ve been
telling them 10 days into the job, "More in
my life than traffic is now congested."
To
those offering their congratulations via email,
which incidentally helps produce new telework
opportunities, I’ve answered, "It’s like
inheriting the wind." And to those already
sharing ideas on highway project and snow removal
priorities, "Thanks, let me get back to
you."
Serving
as the Northern Virginia District member on the
CTB will be an experience that I expect to play
out in plain view. First, CTB proceedings and
decisions are largely on the record. Second, the
questions that occupy the majority of the CTB’s
time are right in front us. All those road, trail,
transit or rail projects are underway or being
discussed in a locality near you right now. And in
the aggregate, these needs and projects add up to
a transportation challenge big enough for everyone
to take a piece.
Take,
for example, the value of Virginia Department of
Transportation (VDOT) projects where need and
priority already have been established and where
studies and design are complete. There are $1.3
billion worth of these projects ready to advertise
for bid right now. $1.3 billion! That total
includes $525 million worth of projects in the
Northern Virginia District which are of particular
interest to my neighbors. To remind, we are part
of the nation’s third worst region for traffic
congestion.
For
the record, there are $290 million worth of these
projects ready for bid in the Hampton Roads
District, $139 million worth in the Salem
District, $100 million in the Bristol District,
$96 million in the Richmond District, $95 million
in the Federicksburg District, $61 million in the
Lynchburg District, $42 million in the Staunton
District and $35 million in the Culpeper District.
These are substantial numbers already established
as worthy of sustained investment. They illustrate
a statewide need for transportation solutions. So
why is a consensus on getting these projects
funded so elusive?
What
about VDOT performance? Review the tight set of
policy goals for what is called the "Six-Year
Improvement Program" to start finding
answers. The goals, mostly financial and
administrative, were adopted on April 17, 2003.
Examples: Use official revenue projections and the
best available project cost estimates. Minimize
use of debt. Pay off deficits on completed
projects and do not create new deficits. Fully
fund transportation projects by the time they are
complete.
Other
policy goals are more general: Promote citizen
safety and maintain existing infrastructure; focus
funding on deficient and insufficient bridges and
congestion relief; recognize alternative modes,
including transit, rail, bicycle and pedestrian
pathways.
VDOT
is setting high goals and meeting them. Its latest
report for FY2006 includes 83 percent on time, 88
percent on budget for construction contracts and
78 percent on time, 90 percent on budget for
maintenance contracts. Those figures improve on
its FY2005 numbers. Innovation is happening, most
markedly in the memorandum of understanding signed
by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine with the Metropolitan
Washington Airports Authority on the extension of
Metrorail through Tysons Corner to Dulles Airport
and Loudoun County.
At
another level, the department is making progress
toward a policy for integrating bicycle and
pedestrian accommodations into all projects. A
bicycle pathway and a sidewalk, for example, are
included in the bid accepted by the CTB for a new
Nokesville Road bridge over Broad Run in Prince
William County that will be finished in June 2008.
But huge complexities are built into the system
that make faster progress difficult. Gasoline
taxes, motor vehicle license fees, the motor
vehicles sales tax, a piece of the general sales
tax and other revenues still flow in for
transportation, but no longer in amounts large
enough to take care of transportation needs.
Costs
of land, materials, fuel and construction services
are rising faster. One winning bidder on a Victory
Boulevard project in Portsmouth just asked to be
let out of its bid when the contract was to be
signed, for example, because it no longer could
make the price work a mere 120 days after
submitting it. The next best bid, which was
accepted, was 16 percent higher and that was
before the recent run-up in gasoline prices.
How
complex can spending get? Maintenance budget
payments and operating expenses for VDOT and the
Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT)
come off the top. Statutory allocations by mode
govern construction funds for highways, mass
transit, ports and airports. There are required
matches of federal interstate system and other
funds, and an unpaved secondary road priority.
There are formula allocation requirements for
primary, secondary and urban road systems and for
transit capital investment and operating expenses.
Sorting
through needs and priorities in such a complex
system is bound to be difficult. But the CTB’s
role is to offer Virginia’s transportation
departments clear and concise policy direction,
consistency in decision-making and encouragement
to provide in new ways the transportation choices
and new connections Virginians say they want.
Others are charged with seeing that transportation
revenues are adequate.
And
if that job isn’t done on time and on budget,
you get the draft "Six Year Improvement Plan
for FY2007-2012" now out for public hearing.
Interstate work would continue under the plan, but
reductions in primary, secondary and urban road
construction would run up to 40 percent. Mass
transit capital funds would lose $75 million while
property tax-backed local governments would be
forced to take up the slack in operating costs.
The transportation challenge is big enough for
everyone to take a piece. The transportation
future will be bright only if everyone does so.
--
May 1, 2006
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