The program, according to Fredericksburg Councilman Matt Kelly, helps get smaller, less-expensive projects in the pipeline, but isn’t doing much to help fix bigger transportation problems.
The big problem is Interstate 95, Kelly said, and he doesn’t think Smart Scale is set up to fix that congestion mess, which he adds is an issue beyond the region’s borders.
In the first round of Smart Scale, the region did well, getting more than $200 million for 19 projects out of 22 that were submitted, including the massive southbound Rappahannock River crossing project.
But the second round proved less successful, including the failure of the northbound side of the Rappahannock River crossing to score high enough for funding.
The project didn’t score well in either round of Smart Scale.
Kelly is frustrated that big projects such as the northbound crossing don’t score well primarily because of cost. He also is upset that the Virginia Department of Transportation has declined to make adjustments to how projects are scored for Smart Scale.
The second-round results sent local transportation officials scrambling to see if there are other options to get what are considered necessary projects done in the Fredericksburg region. With only marginal changes planned for the Smart Scale program, Kelly thinks the northbound crossing project will continue to languish, while congestion worsens.
A key reason Smart Scale isn’t working is what Kelly and others see as an unbalanced playing field.
That field is tilted, they say, by money only two regions in the state are allowed to raise, via regional transportation tax districts. They say other districts should have the option of creating a special tax to raise local funds, which help projects to fare better in the Smart Scale scoring system.
Hap Connors, the Fredericksburg region representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, said those local tax revenues are helping Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads areas.
“They are generating over $300 million and $160 million a year, respectively, and that money is being used to leverage bonds and state money to compete in the Smart Scale process,” he wrote in an email. “And they are winning! Big. But, it’s not a complaint against them; it just demonstrates how unfair the process has become when only two regions can do this.”
Connors said other districts will need to push elected officials or candidates running for office to support creating a special tax district.
Kelly doesn’t see the northbound Rappahannock River crossing getting done under the current funding mechanisms. He suggested that the federal government should handle the interstate that runs through the area and let local government handle smaller transportation projects.
Kelly and Connors said the interstate is more than a local throughway. Traffic from outside the region is contributing to I–95 congestion in the area, which, in turn, impacts other corridors along the East Coast, they said.
Kelly doesn’t believe state officials support giving localities the authority to create the tax districts, and said he thinks federal funding will be decreasing in the coming years.
“The state is not ready to face the real cost of ending gridlock on I–95,” Kelly said.
He agrees that Fredericksburg-area officials have contributed to the problem with development, but added, “We cannot stop growth.”
“We can nibble around the edges—service/transportation districts, for example—but the real solution is out of our hands at the local level,” Kelly said. “The bottom line is our state representatives (both parties) have failed to deal with the issue. ... Our state and federal reps need to answer one question: What are they going to do about it?”
Connors doesn’t see the answer coming from the federal level.
“They can’t even agree how to fund transportation, so I don’t see that happening anytime soon—if ever,” he said.
He does believe Smart Scale is a much improved process compared with how projects were funded in the past. He pointed out that more than $1 billion is being spent on regional projects now and in the coming years.
Unfortunately, he added, that money is aimed at projects that should have been done years ago, and there isn’t much money for future work.
Elected officials and planners need to “use innovation and technology” to solve transportation problems, Conners wrote. He cited public–private investments to expand broadband so local residents can work from home instead of commuting, which, he noted, “is A LOT less expensive than building new roads or tracks.”
©2017 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
