West Virginia Considers $1B Transportation Bond Program

BRADENTON, Fla. – The Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways in West Virginia is considering a $1 billion transportation bond program.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin appointed the commission in August 2012 to address stagnant transportation revenue collections and burgeoning capital needs due, in part, to the fact that the state is one of four that maintains both state and county roads. Delaware, North Carolina, and Virginia are the other three.

As a result, the West Virginia Division of Highways maintains 92% of roads in the state, or about 36,000 miles.

The DOH has $11.1 billion of pent-up demand for highway needs over the next 25 years, and another $2.4 billion for the 6,243 of state-owned bridges, according to an assessment by CDM Smith for the commission.

Those amounts are for the existing highway system, and don’t include funds for expansion, the CDM Smith study said.

The commission delayed voting on the bond program at its Sept. 4 meeting. However, various funding options were adopted to be included in the panel’s final report to the governor, according to the Charleston Gazette.

The funding recommendations for transportation needs include increasing tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike operated by the Parkways Authority, increasing various motor vehicle fees, placing new fees on alternative-fuel vehicles and gas/electric hybrids, and dedicating sales tax revenues collected on auto parts and services to the state road fund, the Gazette said.

Other kinds of future funding for roads, such as replacing the gas tax with a vehicle-miles-traveled tax, will be studied.

The $1 billion bond program, which would be undertaken by the West Virginia Parkways Authority, is expected to be considered at the commission’s Sept. 19 meeting, said the paper.

The commission’s recommendations will be forwarded in a final report to Tomblin, who will decide which ones to propose in legislation.

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