McDonnell touts transportation plan
An analysis of 10 highway projects funded by Gov. Bob McDonnell’s 2011 $4 billion transportation program shows they will provide nearly 3,700 direct jobs during their construction, $190.8 million in personal income, $14.8 million in state and local tax revenues and other benefits to Virginia.
“The Virginia Department of Transportation advertised more than $2 billion worth of construction and maintenance contracts last year, a direct result of the money provided by our 2011 transportation package, which the General Assembly approved,” McDonnell said. “This review of a cross section of new VDOT road projects clearly illustrates that putting such work on the street in turn puts Virginians to work and returns other financial benefits back to the commonwealth.” Continue reading “McDonnell touts transportation plan” »
Warner proposals on transit safety, development incorporated into Senate bill
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) joined colleagues on both sides of the aisle in passing legislation out of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to make improvements to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s public transportation programs.
The legislation included new safety standards championed by Sen. Warner in the wake of a fatal 2009 Metro accident, and incorporates Senator Warner’s legislation authorizing grants for localities to promote transit-oriented development.
The bill passed on Thursday includes critical provisions aimed at establishing minimum performance standards for public transportation systems, strengthening enforcement powers and providing states with resources for training and oversight. It draws on legislation that Senator Warner introduced earlier this Congress with Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Continue reading “Warner proposals on transit safety, development incorporated into Senate bill” »
Governor releases transportation plan
Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on Friday details of his 2012 General Assembly session transportation plan, wihch he said will provide additional funding for maintaining Virginia’s infrastructure and will continue the administration’s efforts to ensure greater accountability and transparency in Virginia’s transportation entities while delivering transportation projects more quickly and cost effectively.
“Last year, working across party lines, we took a significant step forward in addressing Virginia’s long-neglected transportation system by implementing reforms to transportation agencies and by accelerating projects and bond funding that had languished in bureaucracy. Collectively, we put the most new funding into transportation in a generation,” said McDonnell. Continue reading “Governor releases transportation plan” »
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’” »
Challenges for a decade
Column by David Cox
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
This being the first year without two zeroes in the middle, many are pondering what the decade ahead will hold. Yeah, I know it’s not really a new decade. Still, it’s worth contemplating what we face over the next 10 years. Having issued some projections for 2010–some might call them wishful thinking–here goes for my view of what we in Virginia will face in the “Teens.”
And oh, do we have our challenges ahead.
* We’ve got to confront the transportation mess. That’s the same one people have been promising to tackle for at least six years. And how far have we come? Last week my wife, daughter and I took four hours driving time to get the ninety miles from suburban Washington’s “mixing bowl” to Richmond. From DC to Fredericksburg, a slow-moving parking lot inched along I-95–we managed to get onto Route 1 which was almost as bad–and it was all just traffic. Our nerves, our environment, and our economy cannot sustain that. If Virginia’s future is to prosper, Virginia absolutely must resolve the obvious issues that only get worse and worse. Continue reading “Challenges for a decade” »
Greg Marrow | Funding transportation
I wanted to take a moment and respond to Del. Landes’ recent press release regarding transportation funding. It is quite telling that Del. Landes is asking me for ideas on how to fund our current transportation crisis since he has no plan of his own. For four of the last six years we have not had a transportation budget to adequately fund our roads. And now, Virginia was faced to close our rest stops throughout the state. Continue reading “Greg Marrow | Funding transportation” »
Daily Rant | The wages of our sin on transportation
It’s not going to come for free. A real transportation solution isn’t 19 pages, single-spaced, without a way to pay for it outside of robbing K-12 and higher education and public safety. AFP editor Chris Graham lays out the stakes in the transportation debate. Facebook Video. Length: 4:45. Continue reading “Daily Rant | The wages of our sin on transportation” »
Harbinger talks transportation with Deeds
The Star City Harbinger has posted an interview conducted with Democratic Party gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds discussing transportation issues in Virginia – covering questions on mass transit, intermodal transportation, bike culture and more. You can access the video on the SCH site here or click on the link below. Length: 8:03. Continue reading “Harbinger talks transportation with Deeds” »
The same old GOP shell game
Republican Party gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell seems to agree now that Virginia needs to invest more in its transportation system. That’s good news.
Two questions. One, can we trust somebody who has been a key player on the team that has been blocking substantive progress on transportation solutions to do what he is now saying he wants to do to get Virginia moving? And two, is what he saying he wants to do going to get the job done? Continue reading “The same old GOP shell game” »
How much longer must we suffer this idiocracy?
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Most of us agree that Virginia has itself a roads problem. You don’t have to sit in traffic for too long in Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads or Richmond or deal with congestion on U.S. 29 in Charlottesville or Interstate 81 anywhere in Western Virginia to recognize that much.
The devil is in the details of how to address the problem. I’m not 100 percent about this, but it seems to me that doing jack squat isn’t going to solve it. Continue reading “How much longer must we suffer this idiocracy?” »
Transportation-funding plan going down the wrong path
Op-Ed by Dave Shreve
Opinions Wanted! Click here to learn more
The Virginia Organizing Project and its Tax Reform Committee commend Gov. Tim Kaine for his recent efforts to publicize and push for expanded investment in the state’s transportation network. There is little doubt that Virginia faces an ongoing road-maintenance funding deficit, that there is ample need for public spending on innovations beyond automobiles and asphalt, and that there must also be significant roadway improvements undertaken throughout the Commonwealth. Continue reading “Transportation-funding plan going down the wrong path” »
Ken Plum: No movement on transportation
Posted by afp on April 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment
www.kenplum.com
Ask any of the residents of Northern Virginia to name the top two or three major challenges facing the region and virtually all will include traffic congestion. Yet with this well defined need and the election of a new governor who ran with a “transportation plan,” the legislature adjourned with only raising the speed limit to 75 mph on rural interstates and the governor reopening rest stops that had been closed to save money. Continue reading “Ken Plum: No movement on transportation” »
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