Yesterday I heard Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer speak at the CIT Building in Dulles.  There were about a hundred business leaders there to hear his remarks on the state of transportation in Virginia.

Although Secretary Homer and I have disagreed on at least one major issue (Tysons Tunnel), I will give him maximum credit for being open, accessible and responsive.  He also is very well prepared with facts and statistics.  Needless to say, he's had to do more with less over the past two years.

As expected, the news was mostly bleak.  Here's a brief recap based upon my notes:

Financial Outlook:  According to the Secretary, all major in-state economic indicators are down significantly from 2008, including new car sales, diesel and gas purchases, and containers unloaded in the port of Norfolk.  The bottom line is less business in Virginia and less revenue for maintaining our road and rail infrastructure.  To make matters worse, the Federal government has tapped out its Highway Trust Fund which reimburses the states on an 80/20 basis for interstate highway improvements.  Unless the U.S. Congress replenishes this fund, this could be catasrophic for states like Virginia who have major interstates.  (Having ridden down Rte 66 on a motorcycle for Memorial Day, I can verify that the pavement is in lousy shape and hazardous). 

State Resources:  The state has slashed $2.2B from VDOT's Six Year Plan in the past year (that's about 30-40% of the initial total).  Nearly all money has been moved out of new road construction, except for those projects already engineered.  The state Trust Fund is now being used largely for maintenance, which means a significant transfer of revenue from NoVA since maintenance funding is based on "linear miles" of pavement and not usage.   What is most concerning is that the Secretary is projecting no secondary road funding or urban allocations to local governments in 2011 based on current trends, unless we do something in Richmond.  This means no local money to improve intersections, repave local streets, or create paths and sidewalks. 

Fed Stimulus:  Virginia has qualified for $800M thus far in Federal stimulus for transportation.  See an excellent website for details.  Where are we seeing it?  In our area, over $200M is designated for WMATA which is keeping our METRO system on its feet and allowing the long-awaited upgrade in cars.  In addition, there is $9M for VRE and $60M for completion of the Fairfax County Parkway, a portion of which ($13M) will finally grade separate the interchange at Fair Lakes Parkway.  Downstate, there is a significant investment in freight rail improvements ($61M), as well as multiple bridge replacements in rural areas.  This new money is keeping projects going and many of our heavy construction contractors in business right now.   (Transpo Fun Fact:  western Virginia's most critical infrastructure need is bridge replacement, while eastern Virginia suffers from stressed-out pavement).

Long Term  Vision:  One of the successes of the Kaine administration has been moving the long-term focus to rail.  Besides the "heavy rail" project to Dulles, there is a "light rail" link between Norfolk and Virginia Beach in the works.  In addition, there are two pilot projects for "passenger rail" planned between Lynchburg-Charlottesville-NoVA and Richmond-NoVA.  That should begin later this year.  Finally, there is a significant planned expansion of our east-west "Heartland Express" freight rail network which delivers goods from the port of Norfolk to the MidWest.  All told, over 30% of the Six Year Plan is now rail.  This shift is not without controversy, especially for the passenger rail.  However, with the recent decrease in driving usage (and increase in bus and rail usage), we are following the shift of the commuting public.  Frankly, the demand is only limited by the supply. 

Where do we go from here?

As one listener stated, you must have priorities.  You can't do everything.  To me, the failure of the state to fund local road construction is most worrisome.  As a local official, you count on the state to fulfill its legal duty to maintain roads, especially those which they own.  We absolutely must reverse this decline in Richmond -- or turn over the maintenance responsibility and permit localities to enact their own fuel taxes. 

For the last ten years, we've been hearing how the "sky is falling" in Richmond in regard to transportation.  I'm usually a skeptic.  But maybe next year, it will actually hit the ground.