Since 1993, the state has put $270 million of its federal transportation money into 817 “enhancement grant” projects. Only 389 of those popular community-based undertakings, which are supposed to be related to transportation, have been completed. Dealing with multibillion-dollar, recession-driven budget cuts, the Commonwealth Transportation Board yesterday tightened the rules to qualify for the federally mandated enhancement program.

$35 million will go to seven design-build contracts to replace or repair 119 bridges and culverts, 112 of which are structurally deficient, across the state. Two central Virginia bridges are included:
  $588,776 will go to replace the deck of the U.S. 60 westbound bridge over Toe Ink Swamp in New Kent County; and
  $776,390 will go to replace the superstructure of the state Route 684 bridge over Muddy Creek in Powhatan County.

The state transportation board will have to cut an additional $134 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s budget this year and trim the six-year highway plan by $743 million by December.

The days of the world’s longest washboard may be numbered. The Commonwealth Transportation Board recently voted to repave I-64 from I-95 to Parham Road, a stretch that has been a disgrace for many years. Repair work will complicate traffic, but the results will be worth the inconvenience. The repavement joins other welcome transportation projects in Central Virginia, which emerged from the latest allocation of highway funds in relatively good shape. The stress falls on “relatively,“ as the recession and other factors have savaged the state’s overall transportation budget.

http://www.ctb.virginia.
gov/resources/2009/cm_
6_ARRA_June_17_09.pdf

Virginia has obligated half of its discretionary federal transportation stimulus funding. The Federal Highway Administration has accepted the state’s list of $287 million in highway and transit projects proposed for stimulus funding, the Virginia Department of Transportation said yesterday. June 29 was the deadline for the state to nail down how it will spend 50 percent of the $576.6 million in special federal money for transportation.

The recession-delayed repaving of a stretch of Interstate 64 in Henrico County and the rehabilitation of Interstate 95 bridges in Richmond will go forward next year at a total cost of $163.3 million, state transportation officials said yesterday. The $43.3 million I-64 project will repair and resurface 5.6 miles of much-patched pavement on both sides of the sixand eight-lane highway between Parham Road and the Bryan Park interchange with I-95.

Virginia yesterday became the last state to obligate its first federal transportation economic-stimulus money. The other 49 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and various U.S. territories, already had taken action to obligate stimulus funds, and many already have begun work on so-called shovel-ready projects. Virginia certified $160.1 million in road, bridge and tourism trail projects to the Federal Highway Administration yesterday, the federal agency said. The state is eligible to receive $694.5 million in federal stimulus money for road and transit improvements.

VDOT is ready for its stimulus money Specific project types chosen for the initial $250 million for Va. The federal economic stimulus package should start to affect Virginia’s transportation system by the middle of April. “You’ll see major procurements within the next 30 days,“ state Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer said yesterday.

With Virginia’s budget ax falling heavily on the state Transportation Department, the agency will lay off 450 part-time workers across the state next month and nearly 1,000 full-time employees during the next 18 months.

Virginia’s Transportation Board rushed to nail down cuts to its six-year spending program yesterday so it will be ready to receive about $800 million from the proposed federal economicstimulus package. But the federal money will not come close to covering the $2.6 billion in reductions forced on the Commonwealth Transportation Board by the continuing fall in state transportation revenues.

While Fort Lee’s expansion proceeds, Tri-Cities authorities are appealing to state transportation officials for funding to meet the expected traffic increase in and around the base. Petersburg Mayor Annie M. Mickens made the case for the Tri-Cities region at a recent Commonwealth Transportation Board hearing. Fort Lee, she said, is scheduled to double its operations in the next two years as a result of the 2005 Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission plan.

A possible source of funds could be announced soon for new daily train service between Lynchburg and Washington. Such an announcement would move a second daily Amtrak route one step closer to reality for Lynchburg, Charlottesville and Culpeper.

A possible source of funds could be announced soon for new daily train service between Lynchburg and Washington. Such an announcement would move a second daily Amtrak route, which has been discussed publicly by state government officials for at least two years, one step closer to reality for Lynchburg, Charlottesville and Culpeper, Del. Shannon R. Valentine, D-Lynchburg, told the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce last week.