Expert: Virginia headed toward transportation ‘catastrophe’

 
Item by Robert Brickhouse
UVa. news: www.virginia.edu

Virginia is headed toward a transportation “catastrophe” if state political leaders don’t act, according to a former state transportation commissioner.

Ray Pethel made that assessment in a column in the latest issue of The Virginia News Letter published by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

Pethtel, now director of the Transportation Policy Center at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, predicts increasingly severe congestion, deteriorating roadways, risk of bridge failures and possible loss of the state’s AAA bond rating if lawmakers don’t act soon to end a long-running funding crisis.

Pethtel, who was director of the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission from 1974 to 1986, served as commonwealth transportation commissioner from 1986 to 1994 under governors Gerald Baliles and Douglas Wilder. Continue reading “Expert: Virginia headed toward transportation ‘catastrophe’” »