Richmond region considers big transportation plans – Richmond Times-Dispatch

And the mini-buses that could soon be on call for riders needed to get around Ashland, or Powhatan County destinations on Route 60, or a stretch of eastern Henrico and New Kent between Sandston and Bottoms Bridge would be another. They’ll be part of a pilot program to bring public transit to areas that transit operators have long felt unable to serve.

The money comes from a 0.7 percentage point surcharge on sales tax across nine localities, as well as a 7.6 cents-a-gallon add-on to the state’s wholesale gasoline tax and a 7.7 cents-a-gallon surcharge on the diesel tax. 

Other regional authorities have, for instance, used their sales and gas tax surcharges to work on Northern Virginia’s worst traffic headaches or to help pay for a large chunk of the $3.9 billion project to add a third tunnel and more traffic lanes to Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Unlike those regional bodies, the Central Virginia Transportation Authority sends half of what it collects back to localities for projects that are on their to-do lists but often languish on the priority rankings of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Goochland County has been hoping for that roundabout for six years now, and Central Virginia Transportation Authority funds got it over the financial hump. Beforehand, there was just a stop sign at a busy intersection, right at a cluster of county offices, the Y, some restaurants and a Food Lion, the only supermarket in the central part of the county.

“It could get backed up, and it could be hard to make a left turn,” said Troy McGinnis, who was loading up his groceries on a midweek afternoon, as a steady stream of cars and trucks passed through the nearly completed roundabout.

“There were just some times of day I wouldn’t drive here.”

Keeping a nervous eye on the traffic, Tim Phillips, the Caton Construction Co. foreman on the site, said his crews managed to work safely behind lines of orange traffic barrels even as heavy traffic moved along. At times, to keep things safe, flagmen directed alternating one-way flows of vehicles through the work site.

 “Yeah, it’s busy,” he said. There’ll be more one-way flows this week and detours for Fairground traffic so his crew can put the final, smoothing layer of asphalt down. 

Breck Steele said he’s looking forward to the end of the work – “Everybody is” – adding that the new roundabout farther up US 522, at the US 250 intersection, has eased another longstanding traffic headache.

“It’ll be nice when it’s ready,” he said. 

The Central Virginia Transportation Authority’s practice of sending half of what it collects back to localities for projects means some of the tensions that can stymie regional bodies – a feeling from one locality that it’s paying in more than it benefits – are significantly eased, Chesterfield County Administrator Joe Casey said during a recent tour of county development efforts.

Like the Hampton Roads regional body, however, the Richmond regional body could be getting set to tackle its own mega projects – projects even bigger than the $100 million it committed to get the $750 million widening of Interstate 64 from Bottoms Bridge to northern James City County going.

It would do that by selling bonds.

Chesterfield County supervisor and CVTA board chair Kevin Carroll hinted at just that at a recent joint meeting of the authority, PlanRVA and the Richmond Regional Transportation Organization.

Bonds would help with projects like the proposed Gayton Road interchange on I-64, which aims at reducing congestion in far western Henrico and eastern Goochland counties, or with a hoped-for extension of the Powhite Parkway from Route 288, said PlanVA transportation director Chet Parsons, who oversees the authority’s day-to-day functioning.

“You’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars,” for those big projects, he said.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has approved the Gayton Road interchange as a first phase of a two-step effort to tackle the chronic traffic jams on I-64 at the Broad Street exit for Short Pump, as well as on that stretch of US 250/Broad Street and the Route 288 interchanges for I-64 and US 250. The proposal, likely to cost $250 million, has just been approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

The first phase of the Powhite Parkway extension would take it from Charter Colony Parkway to Woolridge Road Extension, as a four-lane road with grade-separated intersections at Charter Colony and Woolridge and bridge overpasses at Brandermill Parkway and Watermill Parkway.

The county estimates the cost of this phase $200 million. Traffic and environmental studies are underway.

The second phase will take the parkway on to US Route 360, as a four-lane road with four interchanges, three overpasses and four creek crossings. The cost is estimated at $530 million. VDOT is currently doing an environment study, and the county is seeking a planning grant to review various routings and develop plans.

Bonds could also make more feasible the north-south Bus Rapid Transit service that transportation planners are studying – a service like Richmond’s Pulse but that would run from Ashland or Virginia Center Commons through the city and down US 1 or Hull Street or Midlothian Turnpike or possibly some combination of these deep into Chesterfield.

Bonds allow states, cities, counties and regional bodies to get a large lump sum by dedicating a predictable annual stream of money – those sales and fuel tax collections in the case of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority – to covering interest and principal repayments on that lump sum.

The Hampton Roads authority, for instance, raised $500 million in 2018 with bonds paying between 2.15% to 3.3% – representing an annual bill that will rise from $25.9 million to a peak of $40 million in 2048, its financial records show.

So far, the Central Virginia Transit Authority’s projects have been run on what government bean-counters call the “pay-go” basis: you spend only as much as you take in, so heading into the bond market is something the board will need time to fully explore, Parsons said.

Last year, CVTA took in just under $206 million – $49.4 million from fuel taxes and $156.2 million from the sales tax surcharge. This year, the authority expects those sums will rise.

In addition to the I-64 widening, and $104 million for the the Fall Line Trail, a multi-use path that will run from Ashland to Petersburg, the pay-go approach to that tax revenue allowed the authority to commit more than $356 million for the several years ending June 30, 2028 for 42 other regional projects.