HRBT to be expanded But.......?
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HRBT to be expanded But.......?
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/04/regi...ve-no-pay-plan
Regional lawmakers backed expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on Thursday but acknowledged they have no plan to pay for it or billions of dollars worth of other transportation improvement.
The commitment to enlarge the tunnel could be a step toward uniting fractious legislators on both sides of the Elizabeth River as they try to reach a road funding compromise, some legislators said.
Including the HRBT in any new transportation plan was the one consensus among many of the more than three dozen legislators and local political leaders who met in a four-hour transportation summit at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center.
Lawmakers are seeking a plan to pay for billions of dollars in regional and state road needs before Gov. Timothy M. Kaine convenes the General Assembly for a special session on transportation in late May or June.
Hampton Roads legislators, who remain split on how to raise money for roads, may meet again before the special session.
“We have not talked about the critical issue – funding, which is the big elephant in the room,” said Del. Kenneth Alexander, D-Norfolk. “What tax, or what fee, or what revenue are we willing to support as a Hampton Roads delegation?”
Expanding the HRBT had been a source of conflict among legislators, with Peninsula lawmakers insisting on the project and some South Hampton Roads representatives cool to the idea.
That project “in some way, shape, or fashion must be part of this transportation system,” said Del. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, who presided at the meeting.
Adding two lanes to the tunnel could cost as much as $2 billion.
Still to be resolved is whether the tunnel expansion will be added to a list of six projects costing about $9 billion already deemed top priorities by local leaders, or substituted for one of the six.
The list has been defined in the last decade by officials with the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group of local government representatives that oversees transportation planning.
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, who is chairman of the MPO, said the organization has always considered expanding the tunnel worthwhile but the other six projects are a higher priority.
The HRBT was left off the project list because of financial concerns, Fraim said. “It’s all a question of money.”
Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News, later said he was disappointed by Fraim’s response.
“This is critical to a regional transportation plan,” he said.
Miller said he would not mind if another project was dropped to free money for the tunnel. Fraim opposed that idea.
New taxes and fees authorized in Hampton Roads by the General Assembly last year were intended to raise $166 million annually toward the six projects. Two appointed transportation authorities – one in Hampton Roads and one in Northern Virginia – were to collect and spend the taxes and fees collected in their respective regions. But the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in February that the plan wasn’t legal because unelected officials don’t have taxing powers.
Legislators also must wrestle with the question of plugging a growing deficit in the state maintenance fund.
Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer told lawmakers Thursday that the deficit forces the state to take money for new construction and spend it on mandated road repairs.
“That is a major factor in our declining highway construction program,” he said, adding that maintenance costs are projected to engulf construction dollars around 2017.
“The Hampton Roads region today is losing about $53 million dollars that otherwise would be available to construction if we were properly funding our construction,” said Homer, noting that in six years money lost will balloon to $119 million.
Cosgrove said lawmakers are working to assemble the “pieces of the transportation puzzle today … we’re not going to make the picture today.”
Regional lawmakers backed expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on Thursday but acknowledged they have no plan to pay for it or billions of dollars worth of other transportation improvement.
The commitment to enlarge the tunnel could be a step toward uniting fractious legislators on both sides of the Elizabeth River as they try to reach a road funding compromise, some legislators said.
Including the HRBT in any new transportation plan was the one consensus among many of the more than three dozen legislators and local political leaders who met in a four-hour transportation summit at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center.
Lawmakers are seeking a plan to pay for billions of dollars in regional and state road needs before Gov. Timothy M. Kaine convenes the General Assembly for a special session on transportation in late May or June.
Hampton Roads legislators, who remain split on how to raise money for roads, may meet again before the special session.
“We have not talked about the critical issue – funding, which is the big elephant in the room,” said Del. Kenneth Alexander, D-Norfolk. “What tax, or what fee, or what revenue are we willing to support as a Hampton Roads delegation?”
Expanding the HRBT had been a source of conflict among legislators, with Peninsula lawmakers insisting on the project and some South Hampton Roads representatives cool to the idea.
That project “in some way, shape, or fashion must be part of this transportation system,” said Del. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, who presided at the meeting.
Adding two lanes to the tunnel could cost as much as $2 billion.
Still to be resolved is whether the tunnel expansion will be added to a list of six projects costing about $9 billion already deemed top priorities by local leaders, or substituted for one of the six.
The list has been defined in the last decade by officials with the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group of local government representatives that oversees transportation planning.
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, who is chairman of the MPO, said the organization has always considered expanding the tunnel worthwhile but the other six projects are a higher priority.
The HRBT was left off the project list because of financial concerns, Fraim said. “It’s all a question of money.”
Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News, later said he was disappointed by Fraim’s response.
“This is critical to a regional transportation plan,” he said.
Miller said he would not mind if another project was dropped to free money for the tunnel. Fraim opposed that idea.
New taxes and fees authorized in Hampton Roads by the General Assembly last year were intended to raise $166 million annually toward the six projects. Two appointed transportation authorities – one in Hampton Roads and one in Northern Virginia – were to collect and spend the taxes and fees collected in their respective regions. But the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in February that the plan wasn’t legal because unelected officials don’t have taxing powers.
Legislators also must wrestle with the question of plugging a growing deficit in the state maintenance fund.
Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer told lawmakers Thursday that the deficit forces the state to take money for new construction and spend it on mandated road repairs.
“That is a major factor in our declining highway construction program,” he said, adding that maintenance costs are projected to engulf construction dollars around 2017.
“The Hampton Roads region today is losing about $53 million dollars that otherwise would be available to construction if we were properly funding our construction,” said Homer, noting that in six years money lost will balloon to $119 million.
Cosgrove said lawmakers are working to assemble the “pieces of the transportation puzzle today … we’re not going to make the picture today.”
VaDriven Mayhem
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Re: HRBT to be expanded But.......?
Meanwhile you fucking assholes bitched about the "abusive driver fees" that only bad drivers had to pay.
Now we're all going to have to fucking foot the bill for the fucking tunnel.
Nice fucking job assholes
Now we're all going to have to fucking foot the bill for the fucking tunnel.
Nice fucking job assholes
