News and Views

Daily Press : Virginia Secretary of Transportation: To drive smart, build smarter - OpEd

Hampton Roads enters a new era of multi-modal transportation improvements by making the right investments based on transportation benefits instead of parochial politics.

Before any benefits could be realized, the region had to accept the stark fact that limited resources have consequences. Nowhere is this more evident than in transportation. Case in point: $9 billion in project requests from localities statewide were submitted this fall. Around $1 billion in public funding is available.

The McAuliffe administration worked with the General Assembly to develop a project prioritization process called SMART SCALE. This is an objective and data-driven process designed for localities and regional bodies to select candidate projects that generate the most benefit for the money. Once projects are scored, the Commonwealth Transportation Board makes the final funding selection. Instead of allocating dollars to every project virtually assuring little to nothing gets built, the SMART SCALE process fully funds the right projects so they can be delivered benefiting all regions of the state in an equitable way.

Recent actions demonstrate Hampton Road's regional leaders understand this. Once fragmented and divisive, the region is working together by using logic to evolve the transportation vision. This started when the region combined resources with the state to widen 21 miles I-64 on the Peninsula to six lanes past Route 199. The project will provide immediate congestion relief.

Regarding a new water crossing, the region unanimously endorsed Alternative A because it could be funded and built, benefiting Hampton Roads in this lifetime instead of waiting another generation to do something.

The project will widen I-64 to a six-lane facility from I-664 in Hampton to I-564 in Norfolk, including a new parallel bridge-tunnel. The CTB approved Alternative A last week and a construction contract is expected to be awarded in 2018. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also tentatively approved this alternative.

Improvements will be much more than an expanded facility. It will move more people with fewer vehicles involving many modes of transportation by using managed lanes.

It's all about choices. Solo travelers who want to reach their destination faster will have the option to use the new lanes for a variable toll and carpoolers and buses can use the new lanes for free, while the general purpose lanes will be free to all users. Managed lanes have proven to greatly improve traffic flow in all lanes, making the maximum use of existing and new capacity.

Read the entire OpEd from the Daily Press. 
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