By KELLY HANNON
RICHMOND--State transportation officials offered a look yesterday at how the budget stalemate in the General Assembly could impact road projects in the Fredericksburg area.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board received a draft six-year, $6.9 billion improvement plan yesterday. Without new funding, it would provide $870 million less for primary, secondary and urban road construction than the previous six-year plan.
This means local supervisors won't have as much money to spend on secondary routes such as Harrison, Salem Church and Gordon roads in Spotsylvania County and Courthouse, Mine and Mountain View roads in Stafford County.
The draft plan still includes 16 pages of interstate and primary road projects that would be funded in the Fredericksburg area, although many are small-scale and cost less than $30,000. Included are projects to begin improvements to State Route 3 and U.S. 17, and to widen State Route 208 to four lanes near Spotsylvania Courthouse.
After yesterday's presentation, the mood in the Virginia Department of Transportation auditorium was somber.
"I would like a moment of silence," deadpanned Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer.
There were a few laughs, but they died quickly.
Mary Lee Carter, a former Spotsylvania supervisor who represents the Fredericksburg area on the CTB, said she was "devastated" to see local governments getting less money for secondary roads.
"Congestion continues to grow, and when we have the obligation to transport more citizens, how do we realize the funding?" Carter asked.
She answered her own question. "I'm optimistic that the people we have elected to office in the General Assembly will take their obligation very seriously," she said.
The assembly is meeting in a special session to try to break an impasse over transportation funding that prevented it from approving a budget earlier this year.
The Senate has proposed raising about $1 billion in taxes for transportation. The House opposes new taxes, but has scraped up about half that amount in various fees and surplus monies.
If a state budget is passed by early June, and it appropriates additional money for transportation, the draft plan could incorporate those changes, Homer said. The CTB is scheduled to vote on the plan June 15. The budget year begins July 1.
Gov. Tim Kaine said he did not have direct input on the plan, but called it "a realistic assessment of what we can and cannot do with the resources."
But House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, released a statement accusing Kaine of "unsuccessful scare tactics and [an] increasingly desperate campaign of misinformation."
"Instead of taking advantage of today's CTB meeting to dispel the myths of their own making, the administration cynically chose to further misrepresent the current budget situation with unwarranted and unnecessary doomsday scenarios," Howell said.
Most of the money in the $6.9 billion package pays for maintenance of existing state roads, which VDOT is required by law to do first.
But the stable of state roads is growing as more subdivisions are built. Virginia picked up 388 miles of new roads in 2005--almost double its previous annual average of 200, Homer said.
"The maintenance program is substantially larger than it has ever been," Homer said.
Meanwhile, asphalt, concrete, sand, stone and other road-construction materials are more expensive, he said.
"Our transportation dollar today buys substantially less than it did a year ago," Homer said.
Public hearings on the six-year plan are scheduled April 25 in Williamsburg, May 3 in Chantilly and May 9 in Salem.
ON THE NET: Comments on the plan can be e-mailed to six-year
Email: program@VDOT.virginia.gov.
To reach KELLY HANNON:
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com