If you think truck traffic on Interstate 81 is bad, just wait to see what U.S. 460 and U.S. 58 look like in 25 years if Virginia Port Authority projections for truck traffic pan out. According to an article in today’s Daily Press, surging Asian imports through Virginia ports could triple the volume of warehouse and distribution space, about 10- to 15-million square feet now.
“My fear, as an engineer, is gridlock,” Mike Crist said. He’s an engineer with Moffatt & Nichol, the firm that has worked with the Port Authority to study the need for more distribution center space. Crist said the potential for trucks leaving distribution centers to hit gridlock at tunnels or interstate-highway bottlenecks should nudge developers to look westward – where trucks can make a cleaner getaway to U.S. 58 or 460.
Warehouse and distribution facilities pay lots and lots of taxes, so they’re a great benefit to the Commonwealth — at least as long as international trade patterns persist. However, it’s widely acknowledged that trucks are way undertaxed, given the pounding they put on pavements and the roadway maintenance demands they create. By all means, let us try to find a way to accommodate this economic bonanza, but let us find a way that doesn’t entail sticking the tax burden on the general public or accelerating the spread of dysfunctional human settlement patterns to outlying counties. Trucks need to pay their fair share of the multi-billion dollar improvements that will be needed.
