Tag Archives: U.S. 460

Where’s the P3 Money Going?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The big winner: Southeastern Virginia

Four days ago Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, issued an analysis contending that the McDonnell administration could find $300 million to support the Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project from funds set aside for public private partnerships. That argument is moot now that the state Senate approved the 2013-2014 budget without the extra monies for Dulles rail.

But Schwartz made a point that still resonates: “The Virginia Secretary of Transportation,” he said, “should provide a clear presentation of his funding allocations and priorities to the legislators.”

Here’s how Schwartz reconstructs state commitments to public private partnerships so far:

  • $124 million to the Coalfields Expressway
  • 350 million in GARVEE bonds for the Midtown/Downtown tunnels
  • $124 million (proposed) for Interstate 95 HOT lanes
  • $500 million (proposed) for Route 460

(Note: The precise state allocation to the Midtown/Downtown tunnels is still under negotiation as the administration seeks to provide roughly $100 million in toll relief.)

Those projects account for nearly $1.1 billion, or more than two-thirds of all the money the state has set aside for public-private partnerships (P3s). As it currently stands, Hampton Roads, with 21% of the state population, will wind up with 57% of all the boodle. I find it remarkable that no one is complaining that one corner of the state should receive the lion’s share of P3 funding. Is anyone paying attention?

Schwartz is particularly critical of the U.S. 460 Connector: “Hampton Roads officials have said Route 460 is not their priority and that they would rather have the funds allocated to their traffic choked bridge/tunnel crossings. During this legislative session, they have campaigned for funds to reduce the toll burden imposed in the current PPTA deal for the Midtown/Downtown tunnels and they have asked for Route 460 funds to be allocated to the James River crossings.”

Governor Bob McDonnell views U.S. 460 as an economic development project, and economic developers concur that the potential exists to turn U.S. 460 between Suffolk and Petersburg into a world-class manufacturing and logistics corridor. But the question remains: Is the potential so enormous that it justifies allotting one-third of all P3 money to a single project?

Count on Bacon’s Rebellion to keep asking the questions that people should be asking.

— JAB

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Connecting the Dots on the 460 Connector

Posted on April 4, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Map credit: VDOT.

So, I was digging into the economic and financial assumptions of the U.S. 460 Connector project, and I was reading the public-private partnership proposal put forth by 460 Partners, a consortium led by Richmond-based Moreland Property Group that includes infrastructure giants like Skanska USA and Lane Construction Corp…

Like the proposals advanced by two competing groups, 460 Partners states that there is no way to charge enough tolls to pay for the estimated $1.8 billion project. But unlike the others, 460 Partners asks for no direct public subsidy (other than $52 million for pre-development expenses and right-of-way acquisition that would be repaid).

Instead, the group proposed creating a regional economic development authority to coordinate marketing efforts under the brand of “Virginia’s Gateway Corridor,” which would carry with it a set of incentives “specifically targeted towards manufacturing, exports and warehouse and distribution type companies.” That marketing group would promote industrial and logistics development along the U.S. 460 corridor. And the expense of the highway project not covered by tolls would be recouped by “receiving a portion of the economic benefits created within the Virginia’s Gateway Corridor area,” based on metrics such as jobs created, sales tax revenue or capital investment.

Where had I heard those ideas before? Oh, yes! The McDonnell administration attempted to craft legislation that would embody both ideas, or, at least, variants of both ideas — both of which I had already blogged about.

Instead of creating “Virginia’s Gateway Corridor,” HB 1183 would create the Route 460 Corridor Interstate 86 Connector Economic Development Zone.” And, as originally submitted, it would have provided up to $50 million tax credits over two years to companies involved in maritime commerce or the import/export of manufacturing products. An amended version version of the bill has passed both the state Senate and the House of Delegates.

The governor’s omnibus transportation bill also provided for the creation of Transportation Improvement Districts (TID) consisting of territory within a five-mile radius of a transportation infrastructure project. Twenty-five percent of any growth in state General Fund tax revenues would have been transferred to TID funds, and the Commonwealth Transportation Board could allocate the money to projects in its Six-Year Improvement Program — including, presumably, the project that accounted for the revenue growth. That’s pretty close to what 460 Partners had in mind. However, the provision did not make it into the final version of the bill passed by the House and Senate.

Coincidence or not? I spoke to Brad Rodgers, president of 460 Partners, to find out. His consortium wasn’t involved with the drafting of the legislation, he said, but “I’d like to think [the legislation] was inspired by our proposal. The concept [for Virginia’s Gateway Corridor] was almost verbatim what we laid out.”

Rodgers did not speculate how the defeat of the Transportation Improvement District idea would affect the chances that the 460 Partners proposal would be selected. Nor did he know when the McDonnell administration would make its decision. The project time line has been delayed, he said, due to the “hullabaloo” over the Midtown-Downtown Tunnel project in which Hampton Roads politicians are demanding the state contribute more to the project to buy down toll rates there. He suspects that administration officials are looking for “more clarity” before moving on to the U.S. 460 project.

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Virginia’s Next Economic Boom?

Posted on April 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Virginia’s economic developers expect a wave of manufacturing and logistical investment when the Panama Canal expansion is complete. Opportunities this big, they say, come along only once in a generation.

by James A. Bacon

From peanut fields....

New mega-industrial parks and a proposed $1.8 billion highway could help create a world-class economic development asset in an unlikely corner of Virginia: the sparsely populated peanut country between Petersburg and Suffolk. Traversing farms, woodlands and hamlets, the 55-mile corridor has the potential to become one of the major sources of economic growth for Virginia in the decade ahead.

That assessment comes from Liz Povar, director-business development for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. “We see this as the future of Virginia,” she says. “That’s a big statement — and I’m serious about it.”

The completion of the Panama Canal expansion by 2014 or 2015 represents a historic opportunity for Virginia, according to Povar, an economic development professional whose career spans a half-dozen or more Virginia governors. A third, wider lock in the canal will allow massive vessels holding 18,000 TEUs – four times the capacity of existing ships – to traverse Panama, diverting significant traffic from West Coast Ports. At present, Hampton Roads is the only East Coast port with channels deep enough to receive those deep-draft ships, giving Virginia a first-mover advantage in capturing the anticipated surge in traffic before other ports can make needed investments.

…to Rolls Royce-scale OEMs?

The growth in container shipments will be a boon to the Port of Virginia, of course. But the McDonnell administration hopes to leverage the traffic into massive new investment in logistics facilities and advanced-manufacturing complexes whose supply chains run through the ports. Economic developers are gunning for economic game-changers that bring a network of suppliers in their wake — like aerospace giant Rolls Royce, which in 2007 announced investments potentially reaching $500 million in Prince George County.

The VEDP, the port and local industrial development authorities have seen this opportunity coming for some time. But not until the McDonnell administration have all the stakeholders coordinated efforts, plotted a cohesive strategy and backed it up with substantial state funding, says Povar. The state has committed $500 million in public dollars to build the new U.S. 460 connector, created tax incentives to stimulate port activity and, awaiting the governor’s signature, enacted tens of millions in tax credits for companies investing in a new development zone. Meanwhile, state officials across agencies and secretariats are partnering to “reach out to selected companies that can utilize the assets of a strong logistics network,” she says. Sussex, Southampton and Isle of Wight counties are creating giant industrial parks that will provide enough acreage for the biggest facilities.

This emerging vision for the future of downstate economic development has yet to spread beyond the stakeholders involved. The only piece of the plan to occasion much debate is the U.S. 460 connector, which is said to provide a critically needed alternative to the overloaded Interstate 64 out of Hampton Roads. Smart Growth advocates question the economics of a highway project that requires such a massive public investment, while some Hampton Roads officials would prefer to see the $500 million steered to transportation priorities closer to the urban core. But no no one has yet disputed the premise that an economic boom could be in the offing.

If the mega-sites succeed in attracting OEM manufacturers, they potentially could account for $5.26 billion in direct, indirect and inducted economic output accounting for 8,300 jobs, according to a recent report by Chmura Economics & Analytics.

Liz Povar

And that’s just on the manufacturing side. Between Virginia’s ports, double-stacked CSX and Norfolk Southern rail service extending to the Midwest and Southeast, and connections to Interstates 95 and 85, Povar says that southeastern Virginia has what it takes to become a world-class logistical center. She sees the region growing into a warehouse-distribution node comparable to a half dozen clusters around the country like Alliance Park near Fort Worth, Tex., the FedEx complex in Memphis, Tenn., and the port and logistics activities around Long Beach, Calif.

The economic boon will extend beyond the Petersburg-Suffolk corridor. Industrial sites on I-95, I-85 and U.S. 58 could come into play. “We’ve got under public control more than 5,000 acres and 2.5 million square feet of existing buildings that could be used for advanced manufacturing and logistics/distribution,” says Povar. “We have over 22 publicly controlled industrial parks with water, fiber, sewer and zoning. … All of those combined, once they are packaged and marketed in an aggressive and sustained way, can help make Virginia a world-class logistics headquarters.” Read more.

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Tarheel Lawsuit Could Change VDOT Planning Practices

Posted on March 22, 2012 by | Leave a comment
The proposed Monroe Bypass south of Charlotte. (Click for more legible image.)

A lawsuit filed against a proposed bypass near Charlotte, N.C., could have a big impact on how road and highway projects are decided in Virginia. If a coalition of conservation groups win their case in U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, it would apply to all states in the court’s jurisdiction, including Virginia.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and three other conservation groups filed suit claiming that the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration turned federal law on its head by assuming in the environmental impact statement for the $700 million Monroe Bypass that the highway already existed when analyzing a “no build” option.

“This flawed approach led to the improbable result that building the 20-mile, four-lane bypass with nine interchanges on the fringe of metro Charlotte would have practically no impact on development patterns, the Yadkin River watershed or air quality from increased commuting,” stated the SELC in a press release yesterday. The analysis also precluded from consideration an option for upgrading the existing highway corridor that would have cost a mere $15 million.

“If this flimsy, so-called ‘analysis’ can stand,” said SELC senior attorney David Farren, “the concern is we could end up building tens of billions of dollars in massive highway projects across the region without any fiscal or environmental checks and balances.”

A lower court acknowledged that the misrepresentation had occurred but ruled it “immaterial.” A ruling from the Court of Appeals is not expected for a few months.

Trip Pollard, a senior attorney in SELC’s Richmond office, said a favorable ruling would impact transportation decision-making in Virginia. “The failure to analyze alternatives is a consistent problem in Virginia.”

The $244 million Charlottesville Bypass is a case in point, Pollard said. The Virginia Department of Transportation did not study the alternative Places 29 plan for ameliorating congestion on U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville when resurrecting the project from mothballs after nearly 20 years. Another example is the proposed rebuilding of U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk as a limited access highway, a project to which the state has committed $500 million. VDOT never gave consideration to upgrading the existing four-lane highway.

“We’re optimistic” about a favorable ruling, Pollard said. “The court asked a lot of good questions.”

— JAB

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Panama Canal a Long-Term, not Short-Term, Game Changer

Posted on February 22, 2012 by | 5 comments

Virginia ports rock! But let's not get carried away.

by James A. Bacon

The Virginian-Pilot has published a piece on the “cargo bonanza” potentially awaiting the port of Virginia when the Panama Canal opens its bigger locks, enabling monster container ships to cut their travel times between Asia and the East Coast of the United States. Much of the article recounts background information that will be familiar to readers of this blog. But writer Robert McCabe expands the ongoing conversation in one very important way: West Coast ports and railroads, he notes, know they have a lot to lose, and they are fighting back.

While Virginia’s ports have distinct geographical advantages that give them a shot at winning an outsized share of the increased East Coast container cargo — most notably the deepest channels on the Atlantic — the boon to the state’s maritime industry may be less than meets the eye. McCabe provides a number of  reasons to be cautious.

First, Virginia can’t go it alone. Writes McCabe:

Shipping lines generally call on a series of ports, discharging and taking on cargo at one site after another as part of a “rotation.” So being able to handle the biggest ships might not help one East Coast port if the others aren’t ready.

Peter Tirschwell, senior vice president for strategy at UBM Global Trade, wrote in The Journal of Commerce this month that he doesn’t see a way for Hampton Roads to solve this problem by making itself a sole East Coast cargo destination.

“Given a population base dispersed throughout the mid-Atlantic and a modern inland-rail network that’s still chasing customers rather than the other way around, Virginia isn’t there yet,” he wrote. “It essentially has to wait for the other ports to catch up.”

Second, it will take time to alter deep-rooted trade patterns. Not only will West Coast ports maintain a competitive advantage for time-sensitive products — the oceanic transit takes 11 or 12 days to the West Coast compared to 24 to 26 days to the East Coast — ports and railroads can defend their business by cutting rates. McCabe quotes Tom Finkbiner, former chief of Norfolk Southern’s intermodal operations who now chairs the Intermodal Transportation Institute’s board of directors at the University of Denver. The canal, said Finkbiner, “is not going to divert a lot of West Coast traffic to the East Coast because of all the supply chains set up already. It’s not in the cards.”

It’s perfectly understandable for Virginia port officials to salivate over the growth prospects created by the Panama Canal widening. It’s perfectly appropriate for the McDonnell administration to try to leverage the once-in-a-generation economic-development opportunity. But it’s also important for the state not to get swept up in boosterism.

Of greatest concern to me is the $500 million the administration has allocated to a public-private partnership, still under negotiation, for building an upgraded U.S. 460 that will improve Hampton Roads’ access to Interstates 95 and 85. If so much container traffic is destined to materialize, why can’t financing be structured so that shippers pay for the improvement? If the project is not financially viable without a half-billion dollar public contribution, is the project economically justified?

Don’t mistake my questions as hardened opposition to the U.S. 460 project. I would love to see the Tidewater economy blossom from increased trade. Let’s just say, though, that, based on what I know at this point, I remain unconvinced. The McDonnell administration has hinted at economic-development prospects that might change public perceptions when they come to light. I eagerly await the news.

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Port of Virginia’s Growth Opportunity

Posted on February 17, 2012 by | 29 comments

by James A. Bacon

The Port of Virginia was the third largest East Coast port ranked by container traffic in 2010, with 11% market share. It trailed Savannah  and New York/New Jersey, and Charleston was nipping on its heals. But the market for U.S. containerized cargo is forecast to double over the next decade, and Virginia’s ports are ideally situated to benefit from that growth.

In a presentation to the Commonwealth Transportation Board Wednesday, Jerry Bridges, executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, explained how the expansion of the Panama Canal would give Virginia’s ports a big competitive edge over its East Coast rivals. I have blogged on this topic before, but Bridges offered a greater level of detail.

The widening, expected to be complete by 2014-2015, will allow ships holding 18,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, half of a standard shipping container) to use the canal. Currently, the canal handles ships with capacity of 4,400 TEUs. The use of larger ships will dramatically cut shipping costs from China, Japan and other Far Eastern nations to the U.S. East Coast, bypassing America’s West Coast ports and trans-continental railroads. (I could not attend the CTB meeting Wednesday, so I am basing this post upon Bridge’s PowerPoint presentation, filling in the blanks as necessary.)

Other U.S. ports have limited options to expand capacity. Virginia has the only U.S. port with a permitted expansion project in place. Perhaps most crucial, Hampton Roads has the deepest channels of any East Coast port, meaning that it is best equipped to handle the giganzo container ships now coming out of the shipyards. The graphic below shows the current (blue), authorized (red) and desired (green) channel depths on the Atlantic coast.

Port channel depths. Source: Port of Virginia

Virginia also has partnered with the two East Coast railroads, Norfolk Southern and CSX, to upgrade rail routes emanating from Hampton Roads and Virginia by allow double stacking of container trains. The Heartland Corridor and National Gateway will connect Norfolk to the Midwest, while the Crescent Corridor opens up markets in the Northeast and deep South. Even though Norfolk International Terminals has added six new on-dock rail lines and doubled the capacity of its rail yard, the railroads aren’t expected to be able to handle the influx of traffic. Thousands of containers will have to move by truck.

Freight movement has multiple highway bottlenecks due to the necessity of crossing bodies of water. The map below shows the port’s priority transportation projects in Hampton Roads. Not included here is the upgrade of the U.S. 460 link to Interstates 95 and 85 in Petersburg.


The Midtown Tunnel and Martin Luther King (MLK) extension are already funded. The other multibillion-dollar projects are not.

Two critical questions: First, how solid is the forecast showing a doubling of U.S. containerized shipments by 2022? What assumptions are embedded in that projection? Can international trade continue at the same rate as in the past three decades? What happens if, as President Obama hopes, an increasing share of manufacturing relocates back to the U.S. as China loses its edge as a source of inexpensive manufacturing? Is the forecast solid enough to base an investment of billions of public transportation dollars? And what happens to toll-driven projects if the traffic fails to materialize? I’m not doubting the forecast. I just want to hold it up to public scrutiny.

Second, if the demand is as powerful as Bridges says it is, and if the Port of Virginia will enjoy such an overwhelming competitive advantage in winning the growth in container traffic, why does the U.S. 460 upgrade need to commit $500 million in state subsidies? Do the three construction consortia bidding to partner with the state accept these port projections? If so, how much new truck traffic do they expect the port to generate? And why can’t they pay the full freight?

There are good reasons to believe that the Panama Canal widening will create a great economic opportunity for Virginia. Of course, the state should endeavor to support that opportunity. But I would like to see the analysis, if it exists, that justifies committing the state to a half-billion dollar subsidy.

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More Questions about the U.S. 460 Upgrade

Posted on February 9, 2012 by | 16 comments

U.S. 460 at daybreak. Photo credit: VDOT.

One more tale from the Virginia Bloggers Day event: I asked about the McDonnell/Bolling administration’s plans to build a super-U.S. 460 highway between Petersburg and Suffolk, a project that encompasses $1 billion or so in toll financing, a $500 million commitment of state transportation funds, $5 million a year in Port of Virginia funds far into the future, and $50 million in tax credits for industries locating in the U.S. 460 corridor. (See “Taking a Closer Look at the Jobs Governor’s Industrial Policy.”)

Herewith is an amalgam of answers from Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Tucker Martin, McDonnell’s communications chief.

“Its a transportation initiative and an economic development initiative,” said Bolling.

Insofar as an upgraded highway would expedite hurricane evacuation from Hampton Roads, it’s a transportation initiative. But it’s mostly about economic development.

The driving force is the widening of the Panama Canal, which will allow larger, deeper-draft container ships to reach East Coast ports. Early on, thanks to its 50-foot channels, the port of Virginia will be the only East Coast port capable of accommodating the monster vessels. But other ports are working on improvements that would allow them to compete for the business. Big ships will drop off hundreds of thousands of containers yearly, only some of which can be handled by the railroads. Highway capacity will be a major bottleneck. If trucks can’t get in and out of the terminal, the port loses its competitive advantage.

The Q&A format allowed for limited follow-up. If I had had the time, I would have asked this: If the economics of the giant container vessels are so advantageous and if the Port of Virginia is so well situated to capture the big-ship traffic, why can’t shippers absorb the full cost of the U.S. 460 tolls? Why does the state need to buy down the tolls with $500 million in state funds?

What tolls will the trucks pay? What would they pay without a state subsidy? How much would the higher toll add to the cost of shipping containers through Hampton Roads, and how would that compare to the cost of shipping through other East Coast ports? What evidence do we have that the subsidy is required to accomplish the goal, which all Virginians want to see, of making the Port of Virginia the premier port on the eastern seaboard?

These are questions that legislators and members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board should be asking!

— JAB

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Taking a Closer Look at the Jobs Governor’s Industrial Policy

Posted on February 2, 2012 by | 1 comment

by James A. Bacon

Tax subsidies for businesses locating in the proposed 55-mile Route 460 Corridor-Interstate 85 Connector Economic Development Zone could add up to $50 million over 2015 and 2016, if HB 1183 is passed into law. Remarkably, no one seems to be questioning the propriety of such aggressive use of the tax code to promote industrial development.

The bill would allow out-of-state companies to exempt taxes on income generated from activities within the zone, which includes the counties of Isle of Wight, Prince George, Sussex, and Southampton and the Cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Twenty-five percent of income would be exempted for companies employing at least 25 full-time employees, 50% for 50 employees, 75% for 75 employees, and 100% for 100 employees. Companies must be engaged either in maritime commerce or import-export manufacturing.

The bill, sponsored by Delegates Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, and Bob Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, is part of a larger McDonnell administration initiative to stimulate commerce and manufacturing along the U.S. 460 corridor between Petersburg and Hampton Roads. (SB 578, sponsored by Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, is the counterpart bill in the senate.) Gov. Bob McDonnell also has allocated $500 million toward the upgrade of U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk into an Interstate-caliber highway by means of a public-private partnership.

If Republicans want to establish their bona fides as fiscal conservatives, this is not the way to do it. Fifty million dollars in tax credits? No wonder tax revenues are stagnant — a multitude of credits, exemptions, deductions and carve-outs has shot Virginia’s tax code full of more holes than Bonnie and Clyde. If legislators want to subsidize corporate interests, then let them put a line item in the budget where it is highly visible to all. Don’t hide behind the tax code!

The General Assembly has already agreed to sweeten the pot of discretionary funds available to the governor to grease the skids for economic-development deals statewide. Now the governor needs more? Tax breaks for the Port of Virginia plus a 500 million state contribution to upgrade U.S. 460 isn’t enough? Surely the Governor’s Opportunity Fund should be sufficient to entice companies employing no more than 100 employees. It’s not as if we’re trying to land a new automobile assembly plant here — is it?

There are at least three points worth making.

First, if the Port of Virginia is so well positioned to attract new cargo traffic when the Panama Canal widening is complete in two years, and if the state is already subsidizing construction of a new stretch of Interstate-quality highway, why do we need to subsidize corporate investment to the area? Is Virginia that uncompetitive?

One possible response is that other states are subsidizing new corporate investment, so we need to as well. That logic fails utterly, too, as I shall explain in the second point:

Do we really want to create an expectation among companies investing in Virginia that subsidies are there for the asking? That just encourages them to press for more, whether they need the assistance or not. The giveaways vitiate the fiscal conservative’s ideal of creating a level tax playing field for everyone. Our goal should be to make the tax base as broad as possible in order to set rates as low as possible. Tax subsidies may create short-term job gains — jobs that might have come to Virginia anyway — but they are the ruin of tax policy. The existence of tax loopholes keep rates higher, thus discouraging economic activity in sectors not favored by politicians. Trouble is, we never see the jobs not created, so we never know what we are losing.

Thirdly, the argument for subsidizing job creation ignores the impact of those jobs on the demand for infrastructure and government services in areas now lacking them. It’s one thing to land jobs in a population center like Norfolk-Virginia Beach where thousands of unemployed factory workers could be put back to work without relocating or straining public services. It’s another thing to bring the jobs to out-of-way places like Sussex and Isle of Wight counties.

Why do I mention Sussex and Isle of Wight? Because those are the counties where, according to a recent McDonnell administration-funded economic impact analysis, two new “mega manufacturing” industrial sites are planned. (See “U.S. 460 Project as Economic Development Powerhouse.”) The new manufacturing firms have the potential to support 2,635 permanent jobs directly and thousands more indirectly.

Perhaps someone deep in the bowels of the McDonnell administration has addressed the implications, but I have seen nothing. How well equipped are Sussex County (population 12,056) and Isle of Wight (population 35,457) to handle the influx of jobs and population? How much will the state have to spend on new roads? How much will the counties have to spend on new schools, utilities and public services?

Meanwhile, the McDonnell team would make matters worse with another piece of legislation that would capture new state revenue attributed to a transportation project, siphon it out of the General Fund and into the Transportation Trust Fund, and thus weaken the ability of the General Fund to pay for education, Medicaid, corrections and other things that only the General Fund can pay for.

This welter of economic development initiatives may burnish McDonnell’s credentials as “the jobs governor,” but it is not well thought out from a tax perspective. Virginia is becoming as bad as the federal government. We are creating so many subsidies and tax loopholes that it’s impossible to keep track of it all, much less to make economic decisions based on economic fundamentals. Conservatives have a name for this kind of boosterism. It’s called “industrial policy.” It is antithesis is small government and free markets.

Gov. Bob has aspirations, it is said, to be selected as a vice presidential running mate. Really? For which party?

Update: A reader reminds me that the Virginia Port Authority board agreed in principle back in September 2011 to chip in $5 million a  year in state port funding to help pay for up to $250 million of the road. That would represent yet another subsidy, although a defensible one. The ports are the No. 1 beneficiary of the highway project and should be expected to contribute. Meanwhile, the Virginia Department of Transportation has applied for a $20 million federal TIGER grant and $200 million in federal TIFIA loan guarantee financing.

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