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| Replacing the Nelson Street Bridge in downtown Lexington remains in VDOT's revised construction plan. The future of several projects in Rockbridge County remains uncertain. (NED OLIVER/The Rockbridge Report) |
Although the Virginia Department of Transportation has announced changes to its six-year improvement plan, the replacement of the aging Nelson Street bridge in downtown Lexington has escaped the current budget crisis.
The six-year plan outlines construction projects that were planned to
begin between 2009 and 2014. The revised plan cuts $2 billion and
808 planned projects from the state’s highway construction program.
Lack of funding because of the economic downturn has made the mid-year revision necessary, a VDOT representative said.
The revisions to the six-year plan will primarily affect new construction projects, said Susan Hammond, administrator of the Lexington VDOT residency. She said that the new plan emphasizes improvements to existing roads and bridges.
“The plan is going to be reorganized by things necessitated by safety,” she said.
Although the Nelson Street bridge remains on VDOT’s “to-do list,” Lexington City Manager John Ellestad was not optimistic about the future of Virginia’s infrastructure.
“I’m tremendously concerned about these cuts," Ellestad said. "For all intents and purposes, there is no more construction money for roads in Virginia. If construction costs [for the Nelson Street bridge] go up even a little bit, we don’t know where that money will come from.”
Hammond said that as part of the revised plan, funding has been pulled for the scheduled resurfacing of two rural roads in the county, Route 651 and 659. Although funding has been cut, the projects have not been removed from the plan. Hammond said that VDOT will hold a public hearing about those projects in April or May.
Besides the planned replacement of the Nelson Street bridge, the construction of a climbing lane on Interstate 81 in the Fairfield area remains in the revised plan.
The revisions were approved at a Feb. 13 meeting in Richmond. The mid-year revision, described in a statement from VDOT as rare, was made in response to a $2.6 billion state and federal funding shortfall. The statement attributed the shortfall to a combination of the slowing economy, shrinking revenues and increased maintenance costs.
Hammond said that transportation funding has been hit hard over the last few years, largely because of the high cost of fuel.
As the price of fuel has risen over the past three years, people have been driving less, and that has affected revenue from the fuel tax, she said, adding that the tax is a primary source of funding for transportation projects. Hammond noted that the fuel tax has not been raised since 1986.
The rising cost of materials used to build and maintain roadways has exacerbated an already tough situation for VDOT. Prices for those materials have gone up because of the higher production and shipping costs, Hammond said.
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| Last year the aging Nelson Street bridge was deemed unfit to carry truck traffic. Trucks have since been re-routed to Washington Street. (NED OLIVER/The Rockbridge Report) |
“If there are no changes in how transportation is funded, it certainly will make it difficult to maintain our facilities at the level they are right now,” she added.
Ellestad said the replacement of the bridge has been a priority since the city learned last year that it had deteriorated to the point where truck traffic needed to be diverted around it. And while he expressed relief to see the bridge included the revised plan, Ellestad also said he was concerned the budget shortfall would continue to be a problem.
“I don’t see a solution to this, because the state legislature doesn’t believe in solving problems,” Ellestad said. “If you’re going to fix the roads, it costs money. The money has to come from someplace, be it tolls, taxes, or other user fees.”
County Administrator Claire Collins agreed that funding for transportation was an issue that needed to be addressed by the General Assembly. And she was equally pessimistic about the likelihood of that actually happening.
“Unfortunately, because it is an election year, it is unlikely that the legislature will be willing to address this,” Collins said.
Neither of the area’s legislators, state Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr. nor Del. Ben Cline, returned calls requesting a comment.
While Hammond said she did not believe that the revisions to the six-year plan would result in any noticeable decrease in the quality of roads and bridges in Rockbridge County, she also said that if funding for roadways was not eventually increased, the quality of the infrastructure would suffer.
Ellestad was less cautious in his analysis of the problem.
“The people who say that there is no such thing as a good tax are going to find out that there is no such thing as a good road,” he said.
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