
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 16, 1993                   TAG: 9311160144
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

WILDER PRAISES HIS ROAD RECORD

Gov. Douglas Wilder told a conference at Virginia Military Institute on Monday that his administration has made the grade on transportation.

Accomplishments Wilder cited included:

Reorganizing the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Forming public-private partnerships, such as the privately funded Dulles Airport toll road.

Increasing federal transportation funding for Virginia by $100 million a year.

Virginians for Better Transportation, a group of business leaders and others, has argued that the state needs to raise even more money for transportation, lest economic growth be put in peril. The group also is concerned about inequities for rural areas in the current funding formula.

The group plans to make its pitch this afternoon to a General Assembly committee studying highway funding. The committee is considering, among other things, raising the fuel tax.

Wilder said his last budget - which he will offer to the legislature in January - will not include any tax increases.

Wilder said Monday that Virginia has spent more than $2 billion a year on transportation projects during his tenure, $165 million more per year than any previous administration. "We are building, we are expanding, and we are spending," he said.

He had some suggestions for future transportation policy: Projects should serve the state's economic development goals, he said. More emphasis should be placed on public transportation and car pools in urban and suburban areas. The transportation department reorganization should continue.

Wilder applauded those at the conference for accepting the transportation department's reorganization. You "reinvented yourself to recognize that the citizen is your customer," he said. Wilder also claimed success for:

Legislative approval of a pilot project for a new right-of-way evaluation system aimed at lowering acquisition costs.

Key transportation projects, such as the Blacksburg-Christiansburg bypass, the Blacksburg-to-Roanoke "smart road" and improvements to U.S. 58, which he called "a critical economic development initiative."

by CNB