Pocahontas Parkway looks to growth for a lift

Andi Kuhn is counting on the growth of eastern Henrico County to help pay for a toll road that her Australian-based company runs for Virginia.

Right now, the Pocahontas Parkway is suffering along with the rest of the region's economy, but Kuhn is confident of recovery.

"We do believe in this growth of this community," said Kuhn, director of Pocahontas 895 and a Richmond native. "I saw when western Henrico looked a lot like eastern Henrico."

When Pocahontas Parkway opened in late 2002, it opened a new gateway across the James River to eastern Henrico. The state built the road with bonds issued through a nonprofit association because of concerns among some Henrico economic development officials that the toll road never would pay for itself.

However, County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett said he never had any doubts about the need for the road, which serves both as a critical commuter link between communities on both sides of the river and as a direct path to Richmond International Airport for people who live south of the James.

"There had to be a river crossing to serve that community," Hazelett said in a 2006 interview.

Kuhn's firm, Transurban, took over the 8.8-mile highway from the state in 2006 under a 99-year lease that assumed the state debt and other costs for a total price of more than $548 million. The company has continued to make major investments in the highway since then, including the construction of a 1.6-mile connector road to the airport, despite declining traffic volumes and toll revenue.

"Transurban shoulders the risk -- the state doesn't and the taxpayers don't," Kuhn said.

In the past 12 months, the toll-road operator has seen a drop of more than 11 percent in trips on the road and a decline in toll revenue of less than 1 percent. First, high gasoline prices dented driving last summer, particularly on weekends. Then the recession deepened, resulting in the shutdown of the Qimonda semiconductor chip factory in eastern Henrico and layoffs at other big employers on the other side of the James, such as Philip Morris USA and DuPont Co.

When Qimonda announced Feb. 3 that it would close the White Oak Semiconductor Plant, "we felt it literally at the drop of a hat," Kuhn said.

Traffic also hasn't bounced back from the latest increase in tolls on the parkway. The toll rose 25 cents to $2.75 a trip in early January as the second part of a two-phased, 50-cent increase that took effect in early 2008. Normally, traffic volumes fall after a toll increase but then recover, Kuhn said. "This time, we didn't."

At the same time, big developments planned in eastern Henrico, such as Wilton Farms and Tree Hill Farm, aren't moving ahead because of the tight credit and housing markets.

"The good news is we're in it for the long term," Kuhn said. "Our job is to connect people to other people and places, that's what this road does well."

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or .