Dear Governor McDonnell,
I know you’re a busy man. You oversee the entire breadth and scope of
state government. You don’t have time to get involved in every local
controversy. But every once in a while, if you don’t step in to correct a
bad decision, you can wind up with a big mess on your hands.
The Charlottesville Bypass is turning into a Big Mess. Your
administration has committed $244 million to build a 6.5-mile highway to
bypass one of the more congested stretches of U.S. 29. You made the
project a priority in order to preserve the integrity of U.S. 29, a
Corridor of Statewide Significance, which Lynchburg, Danville and other
communities regard as an economic lifeline for their manufacturing-based
economies. That makes sense. You are “the jobs governor,” after
all, and Lynchburg and Danville need good highway connections to stay
economically competitive.
But there’s a lot about that project that you don’t know (unless you read Bacon’s Rebellion faithfully).
You probably don’t know, for example, that the magnitude of the
traffic congestion is greatly exaggerated. Thanks to a modest investment
in traffic light sequencing, the Virginia Department of Transportation
has greatly improved travel times through the congested area north of
Charlottesville. Trucks and cars using the Bypass (as originally
designed) could expect to save only three minutes or so of travel time.
The rush hour “congestion” in Albemarle County would be considered ideal
driving conditions in Northern Virginia. Go visit sometime. See for
yourself.
You probably don’t know that the original $244 million cost estimate
of the project was gravely flawed and that there was considerable
disagreement inside VDOT on what the final cost would be. You probably
don’t know that the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved the
project without hearing these concerns. And you probably don’t know that
VDOT managed to bring the project within the cost parameters approved
by the CTB only by accepting radically different designs for the bypass’
northern and southern termini.
You probably don’t know that the winning design/build contractor,
Skanska/Branch, submitted a lower bid than other competitors by
introducing design changes that would seriously limit the Bypass’
usefulness for heavy trucks. The configuration of the southern terminus
is so flawed that three trucking companies have said they would not even
use it for north-bound traffic. Moreover, the configuration would
create a safety hazard for south-bound traffic in bad weather. By
accepting the design changes, VDOT has undermined the entire
justification for building the Bypass in the first place!
Finally, you probably don’t know that Charlottesville and Albemarle
County were far advanced in developing an alternative to the Bypass
before you resurrected the project. For a comparable sum of money, the
Places 29 plan would build interchanges at the busiest intersections of
U.S. 29, extend parallel roads to siphon off traffic and make other spot
improvements. These changes would benefit everyone who uses the U.S.
29, not just those who seek to drive through Charlottesville on the way
to somewhere else, creating a much bigger bang for the buck.
If you knew in early 2011 what you should know now, I suspect you
never would have made the decision to fund the Bypass. But the project
kept chugging along and information dribbled out so slowly that there
was never an “aha” moment that would prompt you to change your mind.
Until now. The “aha” moment is the revelation that trucking
companies won’t use the Bypass for north-bound trips.
Don’t believe me. Don’t believe the Charlottesville Albemarle
Transportation Coalition (CATCO), the citizens’ group that took the
trouble to show the plans to local trucking operations and ask what they
thought. Don’t even believe the local trucking managers to whom CATCO
talked. Just make a single call to the Virginia Trucking Association.
I’m sure they’d be happy to get their people to look at the current
design and give you an authoritative opinion.
Just one little phone call, that’s all it takes. Don’t let the Bypass go down in history as “McDonnell’s Folly.”
