Commonwealth Transportation Board calls for more project oversight after Route 460 problems

VDOT:

“The Commonwealth Transportation Board on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution calling for better oversight, transparency and risk assessment on public-private partnership transportation projects in the state. Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne proposed the resolution as a way to prevent a repeat of problems associated with the troubled $1.5 billion Route 460 project.

The resolution directs the Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships and the Virginia Department of Transportation to review all processes, policies and guidelines used to solicit, negotiate and implement such partnerships, called P3s and to more directly involve the CTB in the process.”

~Writes Cathy Grimes of the Daily Press

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Critics: McDonnell pushed ahead on U.S. 460 project despite regulators’ concerns

Route 460:

“An opponent of a controversial highway project in southeast Virginia said Monday that former governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) committed hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ and bond investors’ dollars even as federal regulators said the road faced serious environmental hurdles. Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s abrupt decision to put the expansion of U.S. 460 on hold in March has brought new scrutiny to a project that has cost Virginia $250 million without moving so much as a shovelful of dirt.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had expressed concerns about rebuilding U.S. 460 for years before McAuliffe (D) pulled the plug. But McDonnell and his transportation secretary kept pushing ahead so aggressively that the corps felt the need to remind the state in February 2013 that it had not yet applied for a permit for the $1.4 billion project, much less received permission to move ahead.

Now, critics say McDonnell and his administration appear to have misled bond investors about the project’s status to keep it alive. Project boosters dispute that assertion.”

~ Writes Laura Vozzella of The Washington Post

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VDOT official to Isle of Wight Board: U.S. 460 project "refocused," not delayed

Isle of Wight

“A Department of Transportation official told the Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors on Thursday that the U.S. 460 project was being refocused, not suspended entirely.

The project, a new 55-mile stretch of divided highway slated to be built along the route of the existing 460, has had permitting issues since the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration ordered additional study of the impact the project would have on area wetlands in October 2013. The study was ordered when it became clear that previous estimates of the amount of wetland area impacted were substantially lower than the agencies were seeing out in the field.

The Virginia Department of Transportation project manager for the new 460 improvement, Philip Rinehart, told the board the study is projected to be completed by August or September.”

~Writes the Ryan Murphyof the Daily Press

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