Now ... or maybe never?

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: June 22, 2008

The transportation issue has divided Virginia’s legislators, political parties, regions and the branches of state government.

Virginia is required to maintain its existing roads and bridges before building new ones. Without new construction money, the state will eventually spend its entire transportation budget on maintenance.

That will happen no matter how many more cars and trucks are on our roads. It will happen no matter how many more traffic jams Virginians will be forced to sit through.

This week, the Commonwealth Transportation Board slashed $2.75 billion worth of road construction projects from the state’s six-year plan to cover the growing maintenance bill.

Danville’s Robertson Bridge replacement project was delayed for one year — until 2011 — but money for preliminary engineering and right-of-way acquisition are still in the budget.

“We might not even have to start later,” Deputy City Manager Lyle Lacy said Friday. “If that revenue stream improves, we can get right back on track.”

The city believes that it has a bridge design it can afford, and if construction starts on schedule, inflation won’t eat through the project’s budget.

But the city is relying on the state putting money aside to build the new bridge. Danville also needs the state to honor previous commitments to give the city annual transportation allocations; that money will be used to pay off city-issued bonds to cover the remaining bridge construction costs.

If the General Assembly can’t reach an agreement or comes up with what Lacy calls a half-measure, “then we’ll have to sit down with the pencil and see what it does to us. … We’re at the mercy of others on this one.”

That’s not a good place to be.

The future of the Robertson Bridge could be decided by what happens — or doesn’t happen — in Richmond this week. Dan River Region residents may not think transportation is an important local issue, but the fate of that bridge project could change their minds.