About 15 years ago, major roads throughout Hampton Roads were a mess — congested, crumbling and in dire need of construction. Innovative bipartisan legislation passed by the General Assembly jumpstarted a sweeping plan of improvement, and the success is evident throughout the region.
Virginia lawmakers now have the opportunity to extend that record of progress through a bill that would establish designated funding for improving primary and secondary roads here. It’s legislation that deserves passage, and a measure that Hampton Roads residents should strongly support.
The commonwealth bravely dealt with a worsening transportation funding crisis in 2013 when lawmakers from both parties came together with Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell to pass a sweeping funding bill for roads, rail and transit.
Virginia risked exhausting its transportation funding in only a few years’ time, but reached a common-sense agreement to impose sales taxes dedicated for new construction and improvements. The most congested regions — Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia — accepted an additional 0.7% increase than the rest of the commonwealth to address longstanding issues specific to those areas.
Locally, the money collected goes to the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund which is administered by the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission. HRTAC then works with the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization to determine which projects should be prioritized to produce the greatest good across the region, ensuring no community is left behind.
That’s a lot of government jargon to say the little bit extra that we pay here stays here to fund our transportation projects. Whatever initial skepticism that may have accompanied the creation of those entities has surely dissipated in the years since as Hampton Roads has seen a number of long-overdue projects finally proceed.
These include the widening of Interstate 64 from Newport News through Williamsburg toward Richmond, the expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, the High Rise Bridge in Chesapeake, the express lanes on I-64, a study for construction of a third crossing and a host of other projects that total more than $5 billion.
Beyond those major interstate initiatives, however, is the need to improve the primary and secondary roads throughout Hampton Roads. Every community in the region has places in need of repair or new construction to alleviate congestion, increase safety and ensure resilience in the face of recurrent flooding caused by a changing climate.
A bill pending before the legislature aims to address that by adding another 0.3% to the sales and use tax for that purpose, bringing the specific regional levy for transportation projects to 1%. House Bill 2466, sponsored by Del. Jackie Glass of Norfolk, passed the House last week and is scheduled to come before the Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday.
This is a top priority for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, which views it as an essential element making our region a better place to live, work and visit. Improving area roadways serves local businesses, including the tourism sector essential to the Hampton Roads economy, and could help alleviate fears about recurrent flooding at entrances to military installations critical to national security.
As Chamber President and CEO Bryan Stephens wrote in a Jan. 26 guest column, the funding could address priorities such as “the Independence Boulevard interchange in Virginia Beach, Hampton Boulevard in Norfolk, Route 58 in Suffolk, and the James River Bridge and Jefferson Avenue in Newport News.
“Almost every locality in the 17 jurisdictions throughout the region would have at least one project benefit from this fund, and some would have multiple projects,” Stephens wrote.
Hampton Roads motorists know all too well the frustration and fatigue that comes with negotiating outdated, dangerous and poorly designed thoroughfares. And residents here understand the importance of making our transportation system more impervious when the region expects to see more frequent and pervasive flooding in the coming years.
Virginia adopted an innovative solution more than a decade ago to fund critical projects. Now Hampton Roads has the chance to build on that success and pay for primary and secondary road improvements.
