The road work underway at the intersection of Fairground Road and US 522 just west of Goochland Court House is one sign of a new approach to paying for attacking metro Richmond’s transportation headaches.
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.
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Cetnral Virginia Transportation Authority projects
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.”
The last several yards of Fairground Road is closed so that crews can safely finish work on a long-planned roundabout at US 522.
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.
Troy McGinnis says the Fairground Road intersection would get jammed up at times.
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.
Bonds for big projects?
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.
Tim Phillips is site foreman for the Fairground Road project.
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.
Breck Steele says roundabouts ease traffic problems.
“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.
Construction is underway at this intersection of of US 522 and Fairground Road in Goochland, on Friday, June 16, 2023.
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.
Construction is underway at this intersection of of US 522 and Fairground Road in Goochland on Friday, June 16, 2023.
The ‘Pay Go’ Approach
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.
These include $37.6 million to extend Woolridge Road in Chesterfield from Route 288 to Old Hundred Road, $33.7 million for improvements at the I-64 interchange with Ashland Road (Route 623) in Goochland County, $27.8 million for improvements on Woodman Road in Henrico County, and $9.5 million for two challenging intersections in Hanover County: the T-junction where Route 30 ends at US 1, which has seen more than 20 wrecks since 2017, and a roundabout at the intersection of US 301 and Route 54, near Ashland.
In addition, the authority committed $8.8 million for work on Broad Street for an expansion of the GRTC Pulse service and $5 million for the Mayo Bridge project in Richmond. Funding will bring in an additional $80 million to replace the bridge superstructure by removing the deteriorating arch system and installing beam girders of prestressed concrete formed to resemble the old arches, as well as work on approaching roads and the road between the two spans.
With funds for transportation projects chronically lagging need, priorities for the state and federal funds that pay for most highway and transit work basically reflect a cost-to-benefit approach. Virginia’s “Smart Scale” program, for instance, includes rankings of various projects’ impact on traffic safety, pollution, congestion and economic development.
Gayton Road interchange proposal
Being able to put in local or regional money, while lowering the cost to the state and federal government, can move a project higher up the funding list, Parsons said.
“We’re able to stay competitive with other parts of the state,” such as Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads, where dealing with those regions’ chronic traffic jams tends to make their projects high priorities, Parsons said.
In Goochland, meanwhile, CVTA funds are helping the county proceed with the long-planned Fairground Road roundabout project, County Administrator Vic Carpenter said.
That project has been under development since 2017, to ease rush hour traffic jams and provide a better entrance to the county’s Courthouse village.
Rising construction costs were a challenge as the county was ready to start work, but the $500,000 from its Central Virginia Transportation Authority funds toward what is turning out to be a $5.6 million project were a big help.
“Bringing these additional funds to the table allowed the project to stay on track for delivery and expected completion of the roundabout on or before the July 4th holiday,” he said.
