GRIDLOCK: What's the cost of doing nothing?

Kimball Payne of the Daily Press summarized the issue very well. Just keep thinking $1 Million out of pocket EVERY DAY...

What won't happen?

• There will be no increase in the state's 17.5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax, which — despite repeated efforts — has remained unchanged since 1986.

• There will be no regional tax or fee increases to improve the overworked local transportation network.

• There will be no big construction projects started from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach.

• No high-tech tolling or high-occupancy tolling programs will be started in Hampton Roads.

What will happen?

• Traffic bottlenecks and backups at the region's bridges and tunnels will continue to worsen as traffic increases in a stagnant space.

• The cost of some top projects will keep skyrocketing. When voters rejected a sales tax increase in 2002, the price tag was about $7.7 billion. Six years later, the cost has ballooned to upward of $11 billion. Inflation lifts that local price tag $1 million a day. Fuel, steel, concrete and asphalt prices are surging because of demand in China and other rapidly growing countries.

What might happen?

• High gas prices and a sagging national economy could curb travel and tourism, thus providing some relief from daily backups. The reduction is unlikely to make any substantial progress in opening up commutes.

• There could be progress at the Midtown Tunnel. Upgrading that clogged two-lane link between Portsmouth and Norfolk is being shopped to private companies, and the improvements could be paid for by using toll revenues.

Local projects stuck in limbo:

• Widening Interstate 64 from Bland Boulevard to Route 199 to improve traffic flow between northern Newport News and Williamsburg

• Overhauling the four-lane Route 460 south of the James River to give drivers an alternate link among Richmond, Hampton Roads and points south

• The long-debated third crossing to link the Peninsula with South Hampton Roads and alleviate congestion at the local bridge-tunnels

• Upgrading the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel with either an extra two-lane tube or an overarching bridge to provide daily commuter relief

Republicans, democrats blame each other for transportation impasse.

-Kimball Payne, Daily Press


I blame us, the citizens of Hampton Roads and Virginia, for not standing up to be heard. Enough is enough. Stop the partisanship and political maneuvering.

Work it out. BeatTheGridlock and do it now!