A history of roads in Virginia: Privatization take hold

The Pocahontas Parkway, carrying traffic between Chesterfield and Henrico counties via a bridge over
the James River, was built under the Public-Private Transportation Act passed by the General
Assembly in 1995.

In 1993, ground was broken for the Dulles Toll Road Extension, known as the Dulles Greenway, a 14-mile stretch from Route 28 at Dulles International Airport to Leesburg. It would be built and operated as a private enterprise—the first private toll road built in Virginia since the 1800s. It followed the General Assembly’s 1988 Virginia Highway Corporation Act, which allowed a private corporation to build, own, and operate a toll road for profit.

Then, in 1995, the General Assembly introduced a broader opportunity for privatization by passing the Public-Private Transportation Act (PPTA), a part of Gov. Allen’s legislative package. The act allowed private ventures to build new transportation facilities and expedited new cooperation between VDOT and the private sector.

The first PPTA project approved by the CTB was the Pocahontas Parkway, or Route 895, begun in 1999 by the combined forces of two major engineering firms. The parkway, a toll road crossing the James River just south of Richmond, connects Chesterfield and Henrico counties. It provided much easier access to Richmond International Airport for many motorists in the metropolitan area. Also notable among privatization measures was a pilot program to allow private entities to maintain and operate long stretches of Virginia’s interstate, including much of I-95, I-77, and I-81.

A new firm, Virginia Interstate Maintenance Services Inc., was created by a corporate partnership of engineering firms to meet the requirements of the pilot, which ran from 1997 until 2002.

Meanwhile, highway construction expenditures continued to climb. The value of contracts under way by VDOT increased from about $1 billion in 1994 to about $2.2 billion in 2000, representing a new infusion of funds from state and federal legislation. In 1998, the federal transportation legislation of 1991, ISTEA, was replaced by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), Under TEA-21, Virginia began receiving about 62 percent more in federal funds annually than it had under ISTEA, bringing the federal funding up from about $415 million per year to $671 million. In addition, Virginians also were guaranteed 90.5 cents on each dollar in Highway Trust Fund contributions, instead of 80 cents as provided under ISTEA.