State must maintain roads

Funding for transportation maintenance in Albemarle County has been reduced by 75 percent, and statewide it has been reduced more than 50 percent over the past few years. Were it not for stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the maintenance work performed this year would have been 80 percent below historical norms.
Earlier this year, the Virginia Department of Transportation was forced to cut its operating budget by nearly $4 million, removed $3 billion worth of projects from the six-year plan and laid off 1,500 employees. Then it did the unthinkable: It took away our toilets. Closing 42 rest areas and state welcome centers created a considerable roar.
State highway maintenance and construction projects are primarily funded by the gas tax (which has not been increased since 1986) and a portion of the sales tax and recordation fees from new car sales. All of these funding sources are stressed not only by the recession, but by the simple fact that there has been no increase to keep up with inflation. This leaves a conservatively estimated budget gap of at least a billion dollars a year just for maintenance before you begin to build the first new road.
Starting in 2010 there is essentially no money allocated for secondary road maintenance across the state, with rural areas hit the hardest. Charlottesville only has one interstate and a handful of primary roads. The remainder of our roads fall in the secondary road system, which is not in the federal highway system and therefore not eligible for federal funding.
If we continue to ignore our transportation infrastructure as we have been doing for the past decade, it will be felt not only by the contractors who used to perform this work, but by the entire commonwealth. Virginia has the third-largest transportation infrastructure in the country, and we are getting close to dead last in terms of funding and maintaining it. We need to encourage our state legislators to stop ignoring the issue and make it a priority.

Blair Williamson
Albemarle County