Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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April 21, 2008

Virginia highway, transit upgrades: SW Va.

By CHARLES OWENS

TAZEWELL, Va. — Funding for several local projects is reduced or eliminated in a scaled down six-year plan for highway and transit improvements in Southwest Virginia.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board held the second of six planned public hearings across the state Monday in Bristol to receive public input on the reduced six-year highway improvement plan for the Southwest Virginia region.

Six-year transportation revenue projections are down $1.1 billion from a year ago. As a result, revenue shortfalls have led to a 44 percent reduction in funding for primary, secondary and urban highway construction across the state.

“We have seen a downturn in revenue to the highway trust fund to the tune of $1.1 billion,” Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Russell, said prior to Monday’s public hearing. “When we saw that we didn’t have any choices. Nothing goes into the six-year plan unless you have a funding mechanism for it.”

Although several segments of the Coalfields Expressway aren’t funded in the six-year plan, other funding sources have been previously announced for the project, Puckett said. For example, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine recently secured two $5 Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund grants for the new four-lane highway. The first $5 million grant will be used to establish a rough grade roadbed for the Hawk’s Nest portion of the road, which is located adjacent to the proposed Route 460 Connector Interchange and Route 614 in Buchanan County. The second $5 million grant will allow for the creation of a rough grade roadbed for a portion of the Rockhouse section of the expressway near the West Virginia/Virginia border and Route 643 in Buchanan County.

“What you’ve heard on the Coalfields Expressway comes from the governor’s special transportation fund,” Puckett said. “He is giving $5 million to each of these two projects that we are partnering with our coal companies — Alpha and Pioneer — on.”

Michelle Earl, a VDOT spokeswoman, said the $10 million in Transportation Partnership Opportunity Funds announced by Kaine for the Coalfields Expressway will probably be included in the final six-year draft plan.

Locally, a number of regional projects in the six-year plan include either limited or no funding between fiscal years 2009-2014. Those projects with no current funding appropriations in the six-year plan include a pedestrian trail project at the Breaks Interstate Park; a bridge replacement project in Bland County from Route 52 over Wolf Creek; a Route 460 parking deck project planned by the town of Grundy in Buchanan County; and proposed horizontal and vertical alignment improvements to Lots Gap Road in Wythe County.

Area projects with limited funding during different time intervals in the six-year plan include the Interstate 81 corridor improvement study for the I-77/I-81 overlap in Wythe County; a two-lane reconstruction of Route 83 in Buchanan County; the Route 610 approaches and bridge replacement over Little River in Tazewell County; a bridge replacement project on Triangle Road over the Bluestone River; the Hockman Pike bridge replacement project in Bluefield, Va.; the Route 460 Front Street bridge and approaches over Clinch Valley project in Richlands; the East Riverside Drive at Clinch River bridge replacement project in Tazewell; and other regional projects.

Interstate highway construction projects, which are primarily funded through federal dollars, are not significantly affected by the reductions in state funds, according to a VDOT press release.

– Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

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