Bacon's Rebellion

A Virginia Department of Transportation team has won plaudits from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for delivering the engineering of a Rt. 5 bridge over the Chickahominy River ahead of schedule and under budget. Writes Matt Sabo with the Daily Press:

The total cost for preliminary design and right-of-way acquisitions amounted to 5 percent of the cost of construction. Usually the design and right-of-way costs account for 12 percent or more of the project fees.

The state estimated that had the project been developed over three or more years, as is typical, inflation would have bumped the total construction cost significantly. The savings generated by the bridge team came to $5.3 million, plus cutting off two years of waiting for a new bridge to be built.

VDOT has been improving its on-time/on-budget performance, but this project was unusual. There was a special sense of urgency because, without the deteriorating bridge, motorists would have encountered a 63-mile-long detour.

Said VDOT spokesman Dawn Eischen: “What helped us to ‘fast-track’ this project was the fact that everyone from all levels recognized the critical need for a new bridge and resources were dedicated to move the project to advertisement as quickly as possible.”

Now that we know what VDOT is capable of, we should expect more of it. At the same time, the state should be able to reward superior performance with more than an “attaboy” from the Governor. When VDOT employees save that much money and time, they should get money in their pockets. Of course, state personnel policy makes that impossible. Until that policy is modernized, such spectacular performance will remain the exception rather than the rule, and VDOT will never be all that it can be.

A centerpiece of the Kaine administration’s transportation policy is a 2006 law that requires major rezoning projects in Virginia to undergo traffic impact analysis. The goal is to ensure that local government officials understand the level of traffic that proposed developments will dump onto local and regional road networks before granting approval.

The idea is a simple one, but, as always, the execution is easier than it looks. Assistant Secretary of Transportation Jimmy Carr oversaw the drafting of regulations late last year, and now the Virginia Department of Transportation is holding a series of workshops around the state to make sure all the stakeholders — VDOT staff, local government officials, land developers — all understand the regulations. So far, so good.

But problems are emerging, I hear from one of my correspondents, who attended a VDOT session in Chester yesterday.

On the positive side, he said, the session was well attended, and the presentation covered all major topics. People are encouraged by VDOT’s proactive outreach. And attendees received free highlighters and calculators!

On the problematic side, my source said, many questions went unanswered. For example, who is covered by the “527 regulations,” as the regulations are called? Attendees could not get clear answers. Concludes my correspondent: “Following this latest training seminar, consultants are crazy if they don’t assume every potential development will meet the 527 regs.”

Intructors frequently brushed aside hypothetical questions with a we-don’t-think-we’ll-see-that-situation-very-often, so-we’ll-just-deal-with-that-on-a-case-by-case basis response. My source’s concern: “Hear me now and believe me later, EVERY case will become a ‘case-by-case basis’”.

And a final point: Mixed use developments are becoming increasingly prevalent in Virginia, driven by the conviction that they generate far less traffic on critical collector roads and arteries than traditional development does. Says my source: “The regs — though recently updated — include outdated methodologies that will particularly impact mixed use.” He’s concerned that the impact studies will overstate the traffic impact of many mixed use projects, thus discourage use of a beneficial land use strategy.

I have no idea whether this kind of feedback filters back up to senior Kaine administration officials, or whether the top dogs get told everything is just hunky dory. But the Kainiacs cannot afford to see this signature initiative flounder. Someone needs to ride herd on the training-and-outreach process to make sure the initiative doesn’t plunge the development sector into a state of confusion.

One of the great unsung stories of The Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007 is how it will give transportation planners more tools to clean up highways clogged with too many intersections, stoplights and retail access points. This aspect of the landmark legislation got zero attention from the Mainstream Media, but it will affect the design and functioning of critical pieces of our communities.

In the first of two articles, “Fighting Corridor Torpor,” Peter Galuszka outlines the thrust of the legislation: reducing the number of intersections and access points to major highways, with the goal of allowing traffic to move more freely. The state is writing the detailed regulations, which will go into effect in early 2008.

In a second article, “Reinventing the Motor Mile,” Bob Burke takes a close-up look at U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville, where the community has taken matters into its own hands. Planners have written a draft master plan, Places29, that envisions recreating a limited-access highway through the 29 corridor with a parallel network of parallel boulevards, avenues and streets providing local access to neighborhoods and shopping centers. Development will be characterized by greater density, mixed uses and greater attention to pedestrians, bicycles and mass transit.

Some of the worst traffic congestion in Virginia is concentrated in these retail corridors. Between the powers enacted by the General Assembly and the innovative vision of Places29, there’s no excuse for communities across Virginia not to get cracking on cleaning up their congested corridors