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ROUTE 460 -- $1.5 Billion Symbol of a Transportation System Off-Track

Existing Road Predicted to Be Free Flowing for Most of its Length in 2030

Any Transportation Deal Must Reevaluate Spending Priorities and PPTA Deals

“The proposed new Route 460 is a symbol of waste and misplaced priorities in our transportation program,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.  “It is just one example of a set of VDOT projects which are either unnecessary or sprawl-inducing or wrongly designed to deal with the problem at hand.  We don’t want a transportation deal that fails to change our spending priorities.”  The Coalition has posted a list of high-cost projects which should be cancelled in favor of other priorities or shifted to an alternate solution.

VDOT is close to selecting a contractor to build Route 460.  Meanwhile Hampton Roads legislators are proposing it to be one of the top priorities for any new money in the transportation bill, ahead of critical congestion reduction needs in existing developed areas.

Route 460 would be a new 55-mile interstate equivalent highway between Suffolk and Petersburg.  The cost of the road is currently estimated at $1.5 billion, but some estimates go to $1.9 billion.  The state’s taxpayers would have to pay at least $1 billion toward a project that VDOT wants private toll-road builders to construct under the Public-Private Transportation Act.

“The PPTA isn’t living up to the promises made by its boosters.  This amounts to a substantial public subsidy which is rendered even more questionable if it means shifting general funds from education, health care, public safety and conservation to private construction consortiums and bond financiers,” said Schwartz.

“Drivers in traffic-choked parts of the state would be astounded to learn that the existing Route 460 is predicted in VDOT’s Environmental Impact Study to be at LOS A (free-flowing) in 2030 with the exception of traffic lights in the towns,” said Schwartz.  Today, the highway carries fewer than 10,000 vehicles per day compared to average daily traffic volumes on I-64 on the Peninsula of 43,000 to 80,000 vehicles per day in the Williamsburg area alone.

Schwartz continued, “Roads like 460 have been pushed through the CTB process by VDOT and would make an early claim to both the $2 billion in bond funding and the increases in fees, taxes and tolls in the Hampton Roads region. This will siphon money away from real congestion problems within the metropolitan areas of the state.”

“We could also single out the Southeastern Expressway in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake or an array of another road projects,” said Schwartz.   “Both Route 460 would take vast amounts of wetlands, not serve real traffic needs, and open up vast swaths of land to speculative development.”  Meanwhile, money will be diverted from much-needed crossing capacity at the Hampton Roads tunnels.

The Coalition posted a critique of 12 major projects (10 approved by CTB, one complete and one in the earliest study phase) found on VDOT’s priority lists and which could consume a significant portion of new revenues.   A Coalition and VALCV op-ed about Route 460 ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch and addresses a range of alternate solutions for Route 460.  Since that time the estimate of the state taxpayer contribution has increased to $1 billion in public funds, even if done as a PPTA project.

“It’s time our leaders took a hard look at its transportation priorities and to take serious steps to change land use and transportation policy.  Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into the existing system without these changes is fiscally irresponsible,” concluded Schwartz.

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