THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170171
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
A state plan to finance the $113 million Pinners Point Connector includes a proposal that Portsmouth and Norfolk each contribute $1 million a year from their urban road allocations. That sounds equitable on the surface. In fact, the arrangement would be very unfair to Portsmouth.
For Portsmouth, $1 million represents 20 percent of its annual allocation. For Norfolk, $1 million is between 6 and 7 percent of its annual allocation.
The Virginia Department of Transportation asks for the contributions from the cities on the premise that local participation would help get a federal grant toward the cost of the highway. It's a hard argument to ignore, but City Council needs to negotiate.
Rather than a specific amount of money, a more equitable formula would be to assess each city on a percentage basis.
A variety of funding sources have been identified by the state, including tolls on a new connector as well as reinstatement of the toll on the Midtown Tunnel.
Reinstating the toll on the Midtown Tunnel also will put some part of the cost of the road back on the people of Portsmouth who happen to use that tube to go to work or school in Norfolk.
Because the proposed tolls would produce enough income to pay off more debt than need for the road, why doesn't the state go ahead and borrow enough money to build the second tube at Midtown at the same time it is building the connector?
Most people who use the Midtown crossing probably would be more than willing to accept the tolls if they saw a second tunnel under construction. And it's always less expensive to do a project right the first time than it is to do it one small step at the time.
City Council members show a healthy skepticism for the state's plans for funding. They are right to examine carefully each piece of the proposal and seek a compromise that will keep Portsmouth people from being penalized by construction of a highway that will do as much for Norfolk as it will for Portsmouth.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL
VIRGINIA STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
by CNB