Virginia Highway Commissioner Gregory Whirley
by James A. Bacon
The Commonwealth Transportation Board has allocated approximately $100 million in transportation funds to cover the cost of delaying tolls on the Midtown-Downtown tunnels for a year and half, but Norfolk-area commuters still will be stuck paying tolls for two or more years before the new tunnels and Martin Luther King Boulevard extension are complete in 2017.
The $100 million does not come at the expense of other projects. The Virginia Department of Transportation had originally dedicated $395 million in state funds to the tunnels, the top transportation priority in Hampton Roads, but ended up needing only $305 million at deal closing, freeing up $87 million. The state also will tap up to $50 million in GARVEE bonds, backed by future federal transportation fund payments, to cover the balance, explained Virginia Highway Commissioner Greg Whirley. The state had set aside that GARVEE bonding capacity for the project but ended up not needing it.
Whirley could not say exactly how much it will take to eliminate the tolls under the agreement with Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC), the tunnel project concessionaire, but he’s confident that it’s in the $100 million range. The final figure will have to be negotiated with ERC. The CTB action should provide more than enough to cover the cost.
Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton described the action as an effort to be “responsive to the requests and desires of the General Assembly.” Senator Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, had introduced legislation to delay the onset of tolling for a year and a half.
However, foes of tunnel tolls are little mollified. As the Virginian-Pilot reports today:
Del. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, who has hired a lawyer and threatened a lawsuit, called the action “a $100 million giveaway.”
“I’m not in favor of giving Elizabeth River Crossings any more money, not another dime,” Alexander said, adding that he still prefers to stop the project and work out a new deal. “$100 million doesn’t change the toll rate.”
CTB members expressed disbelief that Hampton Roads legislators were taken by surprise by the tolls. “I’ve been on this board two years. I was shocked that there was an uproar over the tolls,” said Aubrey L. Layne, Jr., Hampton Roads district representative. “There were always going to be tolls. There were numerous meetings.”
Shep Miller
“I don’t see how anyone could view this as a surprise,” echoed W. Sheppard Miller III, an urban at-large representative from Norfolk. However, he conceded that Virginia is still new at rolling out public-private partnerships like the Midtown-Downtown project. “We’re learning.”
Tony Kinn, director of the Office of Transportation Public Private Partnerships, defended VDOT’s outreach efforts, listing CTB discussions in Richmond and public hearings in Hampton Roads. (See presentation.) But, he conceded, “There are things we could do better.” In future projects, he said, “We’re planning to add a mass communication component to the process.”
