Virginia Transportation Funding for Tidewater Virginia

If you've ever wondered what people are complaining about locally when they say Tidewater Virginia gets all the transportation funding while NoVa gets nothing, you absolutely have to read this article in TollRoadsNews.

Here are the key points:

• VDOT and a public-private partnership (P3) consortium known as "ERC" are all giddy about lining up $2.1 billion in financing for building a new tunnel in the Norfolk-Plymouth area--the SECOND such tunnel--plus a series of connections to area interstates, rehabilitating an old tunnel, and more.  "The project not only involves building a tunnel, but improving the transportation network in the region," said VDOT commissioner Greg Whirley.  Well, there you go!

• And to take any possible sting out of inconveniences these projects might cause (those poor suffering people), the good ol' Governor has stepped up "make the project more acceptable to locals:
  - toll collection delays from later this year to early 2014 funded by $100m from state transport funds
  - no tolls for local trips on the MLK Extension toll expressway whose construction is part of the project linking the Midtown Tunnel and West Norfolk Bridge (VA164) to I-264. Local trips are vehicles entering or exiting the MLK extension at London Boulevard or High Street (see map nearby) at the northern end of the project."
  Earlier the McDonnell administration had allocated money (ed:  specifically, more than $300 million)to reduce tolls by 40% as compared to those in the January 2010 interim agreement with the P3 partnership."

•  Oh, yeah, and there is a $422 million federal TIFIA loan that goes along with all that. 

And what is NoVa getting for the most important transportation infrastructure development project in the region since the beltway:  The good ol' Governor may allow us to have $150 million dribbled out over three years to delay the doubling and tripling of tolls on the Dulles Toll Road IF MWAA plays nice and doesn't insist on a PLA. 

You just have to read this article--there is much more to this story--to believe the outrageous gall of Richmond's politicians, but please take your blood pressure medicine first if you use it. 

You can not make this stuff up!

Agenda: Reston Task Force Meeting, April 24, 2012

                                               RESTON MASTER PLAN SPECIAL STUDY
                                                                        TASK FORCE

                                                                      April 24, 2012


Task Force Meeting
Reston Community Center at Lake Anne

AGENDA

7:00 p.m. Public Comment Period

7:10 p.m. Administrative Items – Patty Nicoson, Task Force Chair

7:20 p.m. Transportation Analysis Overview

• Staff from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation

8:25 p.m. Next Task Force Meeting

• Tuesday, May 22, 2012

• Location to be announced

8:30 p.m. Adjourn – Patty Nicoson

BOS approves JBG's Fairway Apartments proposal.

Fairfax Times reports:

Reston apartment redevelopment gets supervisors’ approval

Proposal was seventh version of plan to remake redevelop Fairway Apartments

by Gregg MacDonald, Staff Writer

A major redevelopment proposal for Reston’s Fairway Apartments has been approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors after an initial decision was deferred in March.

The aging apartment complex, off North Shore Drive and across from Lake Anne Elementary School, is composed of 18 three-story buildings comprising 348 apartments.

Many Reston residents have voiced opposition to the redevelopment that would more than double the complex’s density, and have spoken out against it at public forums for nearly three years. Others have supported it. . . .

 Click here for the rest of the article.

Dulles Rail to go $150 million over budget, Washington Examiner, April 18, 2012

 By Liz Essley

The first phase of the Dulles Rail project is expected to go $150 million over budget, officials said Wednesday.

The first part of the Silver Line, which extends from East Falls Church to Reston, is due to open in early 2014.

Dulles Toll Road users, Fairfax County and Loudoun County will be forced to pay for any overruns.

Project manager Pat Nowakowski has been warning for months that the project could go $150 million over because of last-minute safety demands from Metro, but said Wednesday that it may be possible to keep the overruns from going that high. . . .

 Click here for the rest of this article.  

Silver Line Parties to Meet with LaHood, Reston Patch, April 20, 2012

U.S. Transportation Secretary getting involved to get stakeholders to agree on way forward with Rail to Dulles.

• By Karen Goff

Stakeholders in Metro's Silver Line Phase 2 will meet on Wednesday with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in the hopes of avoiding a delay - or even a collapse of plans - to the second part of rail to Dulles, The Washington Post reports.

The move comes as the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said this week it would not put out requests for bids on the project until Loudoun County supervisors vote on whether to help pay for the project. . . .

Here is my comment on the Patch article (which is similar to one I've posted on the WaPo article):

If the "stakeholders in Metro's Silver Line Phase 2" are meeting with Secretary LaHood, WHO IS REPRESENTING THE DULLES TOLL ROAD USERS WHO ARE PAYING FOR 75% OF PHASE 2??

Wait a minute, I know: The same people who stuck them with the bill--your Fairfax & Loudoun County Boards and MWAA. Together, they have a 25% stake in Phase 2.

Go figure!

Click here for the full Reston Patch article and all the comments.  

Process to start second part of Dulles rail line delayed, Washington Post, April 18, 2012

By Dana Hedgpeth, Published: April 18

The process to start building the second phase of Metro’s new Silver Line is on hold while Loudoun County officials decide whether to support the project, according to the authority overseeing construction.

The request for contractors to submit price quotes was supposed to go out in early March, with bids being accepted by the end of the year and a winner being chosen by early 2013, according to officials at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Construction would start in the spring of 2013 and the project would take four to five years to complete. . . .

 Click here for the rest of the article.  

Dulles Toll Road Fact Sheet #4: Exorbitant Reston Toll Costs per Mile

Reston Citizens Association

Reston 2020 Committee

April 19, 2012

Dulles Toll Road

Fact Sheet #4:  Exorbitant Reston Toll Costs per Mile

Put Dulles rail finances on the right track,

Not on the toll road user’s back!

MWAA must install distance-based tolling on the Dulles Toll Road to prevent the gross inequity in cost-per-mile for Reston and other partial-length toll road users. 

By virtue of the peculiar current tolling arrangement on the Dulles Toll Road, Restonians end up paying tolls disproportionate to their use of the tollway.  As the graph below shows, Restonians and visitors to Reston will pay 15% more per mile westbound than their full-length user counterparts ($1.49 vs. $1.30 per mile) while eastbound travelers will pay two-thirds again as much as their full-length toll road using counterparts—Greenway to Beltway—($2.19 vs. $1.30 per mile) in 2048 if toll forecasts are accurate.  

This year, the cost for full-length use of the Dulles Toll Road is 16 cents/mile, which is less than the national average of 19 cents/mile for similar types of toll roads, according to 2011 FHWA data.  Restonians headed west from the Reston Parkway get a slight break at $.13 per mile while those headed east pay a premium of $.26 per mile.  These tolls would increase about two and one-half fold by 2048 with inflation at 2.5%.  The added Metrorail debt will increase Restonians’ cost per mile nearly 8- to 11-fold over the forecast period, depending on the direction they drive.   That means the cost per mile will increase more than four times the rate of inflation westbound and nearly six times the inflation rate eastbound.   

Asking Reston users of the Dulles Toll Road to absorb a disproportionate share of an already outrageous 75% cost toll road users are to be forced to pay for completing rail to Dulles is a very bad idea for all toll road users and local businesses, especially for those in Reston.  MWAA must switch to distance-based tolling now. 

Moreover, our leaders need to find alternative funding sources for the bulk the $2.8 billion Phase 2 construction cost.  We believe toll road users should absorb no more than 25% of the cost as planned in 2004.  Until then, Phase 2 needs to be put on hold.  If you believe these toll increases are excessive and the tolling process unfair—

• E-mail the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at clerktothebos@fairfaxcounty.gov with your comments and concerns. 

• Contact our local state legislators:

o   Senator Janet Howell:  SenHowell@aol.com

o   Delegate Ken Plum:  kenplum@aol.com

• Contact our state leaders:

o   Governor Robert McDonnell:  Robert.F.McDonnell@Governor.VA.gov

o   Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton:  sean.connaughton@governor.virginia.gov

•  Contact our incoming and outgoing Congressional representatives using these forms—

o   Gerry Connolly:  https://forms.house.gov/connolly/contact-form.shtml

o   Jim Moran:  https://moran.house.gov/contact-me/email-me

•  Contact our US Senators:

o   US Senator Mark Warner:  warner@senate.gov

o   US Senator Jim Webb:  webb@senate.gov

•  Contact the White House using this form: 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

·       If you would like to help RCA’s Reston 2020 Committee share its concerns more broadly, contact us at reston.2020@yahoo.com.