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STAFFORD'S PORK has got
No, I'm not talking about the Virginia Barbeque pig. I mean pork as in pork-barrel transportation projects.
A recent Free Lance-Star editorial ["Where's the pork? You needn't look really hard to find it," Nov. 13] criticized the spending of federal highway dollars on a "highway to nowhere" in Alaska while Fredericksburg-area residents sit in traffic because of lack of transportation funds.
But you needn't look as far away as Alaska to find misplaced priorities in government transportation spending. It's happening right here in Stafford County, with the approval--even urging--of elected officials.
Few citizens have ever heard
While fixes for problems like the Massaponax exit, the Falmouth interchange, Fall Hill Avenue, State Routes 3 and 610/Garrisonville Road go begging for funding, our elected officials on FAMPO voted on Dec. 7 to spend millions on a relatively little-used eastern section of Stafford County's Courthouse Road.
Spotsylvania Supervisor Bob Hagan was the only elected official with the courage to oppose this project.
The stated goal of the Stafford Courthouse Road project is to increase VRE ridership at the Brooke Station by improving the road that leads to the commuter rail lot. The estimated cost of this multiphase project is currently $18.2 million (and climbing).
There are just a few problems with this plan. First, VRE is already operating above capacity. The Brooke station parking lot is full. Riders must stand on trains because all the seats are taken.
And VRE officials have publicly acknowledged that parking and train capacity will never keep up with ever-growing demand.
Second, our elected leaders are proposing to spend millions for improvements to a secondary road that, according to VDOT, has only 3,500 vehicle trips per day (compared to the 60,000 that clog the Falmouth interchange)--and one that is relatively safe, with on average less than three accidents per year, none fatal, and only six in a five-year period leading to injuries of any sort.
It gets worse. VDOT was going to use federal CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) funds to pay for the project. This is money earmarked for transportation projects--such as buying additional rail cars and new engines for commuter trains, expanding bus service, subsidizing bus and rail fares, and building safe bike and walking paths--that improve air quality by reducing auto emissions.
However, recently federal officials found that the Courthouse Road project was ineligible for CMAQ funding because it would not reduce the number of cars
Undeterred by the ineligibility of CMAQ money for this project, VDOT and our elected officials on FAMPO are now playing a shell game in which they will call the CMAQ dollars a different name, and then use them for the same project anyway!
Given all the other unmet needs in the area, why have VDOT and FAMPO gone to such great lengths to spend over $18 million to build a road to carry more cars to an already full parking lot? One key reason is that Supervisor Bob Gibbons, a longtime representative for Stafford County on FAMPO, has promoted the Courthouse Road project as the most important transportation link in the county.
That inexplicable designation will come as a surprise to virtually everyone in the region--especially those forced to navigate some of the area's most congested roads.
The position of the current Stafford Board of Supervisors will also be a surprise. They have insisted on this project, voting multiple times--over citizen objections--to include it in short and long term transportation plans.
As have FAMPO and the Commonwealth Transportation Board.
The Courthouse Road project epitomizes everything that is wrong with transportation planning and funding in Virginia. This project will not reduce congestion or improve air quality. It will not begin to address the major traffic hot spots in the region or the County's most dangerous roads.
What it will do is open new areas of Stafford to more residential development, increasing the number of cars on the road. After all, the last phase of the project is to build a new road that dead ends right into the largest track of undeveloped land in Stafford County.
Developers get their pork; citizens get to pay.
Politicians are able to push these kinds of projects through because the transportation planning and funding process is so arcane, and straight answers
As a result, instead of funding projects that can benefit citizens, public officials are simply paving the way--literally--for more development and growth.
But the recent elections in Stafford County are evidence that citizens want something better. We are tired of excuses and inaction in addressing traffic problems and runaway growth.
Public officials should take heed and see to it that scarce transportation dollars go toward alleviating real problems, not toward creating new ones. They should have scraped this pork-barrel project.
The much-beloved Virginia Barbeque pig has a place in Stafford County--but it's time to get rid of Stafford's other pork.
SCARLETT SUHY-PONS of Fredericksburg is a member of Save Crow's Nest.
