Virginia will run out of state money to build new roads in about five years, state Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton said Wednesday.
"By 2017, we will have no money left in construction," Connaughton told the Virginia Chamber of Commerce's newly established transportation committee.
By law, road maintenance is the first priority for funding in Virginia, but the recession has beaten down funding for the state's overburdened and aging transportation system by billions of dollars.
Because of revenue shortfalls, money initially intended for new highway construction has to be used to cover critical road-maintenance needs.
For the fiscal year that began July 1, the estimated transfer or "crossover" of funds from construction to maintenance was $447.8 million. In the prior fiscal year, the transfer was $511 million.
The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to spend $2.2 billion on highway construction in the current fiscal year and $1.8 billion on road maintenance. The agency's budget for the current fiscal year is $4.76 billion. That includes nearly $1.3 billion in borrowed money.
"If we solve the maintenance problem, we have four or five hundred million dollars a year for construction," Connaughton said.
To stop the drain from the new construction fund, Connaughton said the administration of Gov. Bob McDonnell is considering seeking additional revenue sources dedicated to maintenance, cutting costs, increasing efficiency through changes in policies and procedures, and shifting responsibility for local roads to the state's counties.
The transportation secretary would not elaborate on the details of the possible proposals.
Virginia's cities and Henrico and Arlington counties already handle their own road work with state financial support.
About two-thirds of transportation funding in Virginia comes from the gas tax, which has been set at 17.5 cents per gallon since 1986. The General Assembly has regularly beaten back efforts to raise the levy.
Between inflation and improved vehicle mileage, "in real dollars, we're paying less than half of what we were 25 years ago," said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
"Virginians are not paying to maintain the system we have, much less build the system we need," Chase said. "We're in a death spiral."
McDonnell has pushed to get additional money — largely from bonds — for the state's shrinking transportation-construction program.
As Virginia's 57,867-mile state-maintained highway system ages, state officials said, it requires more effort — and, usually, money — to keep it in repair. According to VDOT:
- 1,116 lane-miles of Virginia Interstate highways are in poor condition.
- 5,032 lane-miles of the state's primary highways are in poor condition.
- 27,166 lane-miles, or 34 percent, of the state's secondary roads are in poor condition.
- 1,730 bridges are structurally deficient.
Connaughton spoke at the first meeting of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce's standing committee on transportation.
"We will be a voice for good transportation policy," chamber Chairman Whitt Clement, himself a former state secretary of transportation, said at the meeting of about 55 committee members at The Jefferson Hotel in downtown Richmond.
"The legislature and the governor can be influenced by well-thought-out positions … that the business community supports," he said.
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