A history of roads in Virginia: ‘Unprecedented Investment’ for transportation projects

At $136 million, the Pinners Point project was the largest road construction contract in Virginia’s history when it was begun in 2002. It provides an interstate-type connection from Portsmouth’s
Western Freeway into the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and the Midtown Tunnel connecting Norfolk
and Portsmouth.

Through the Virginia Transportation Act of 2000, legislators provided for about $3 billion in new money or accelerated financing for $10 billion worth of highway construction, public transportation, airports, and ports during the next six years. It was called “an unprecedented investment in transportation in the commonwealth’s history” by Gov. Gilmore, and Commissioner Charles D. Nottingham, responding to the momentum of the bill, said, “We will build roads as fast as the law allows and the money flow allows.”

In December 2000, Gov. Gilmore proposed a Transportation Reform Initiative to reduce the time required for completion of construction projects and to bring savings in the construction program of $140 million annually. In the proposal were 105 recommendations for best practices developed by the Governor’s Commission on Transportation Policy. The recommendations included one to allow the CTB to enter into design-build contracts, which put one contractor in charge of an entire highway project rather than dividing responsibility for the project among many contractors under VDOT’s supervision. The General Assembly was asked to pass into law several of these recommendations, and in 2001 did so, including one to allow counties to choose to reassume responsibilities for building or maintaining secondary roads within their boundaries.