Minutes 09/26/2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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September 26, 2006 WHEREAS, with the aforementioned expanded Port activities, traffic is projected to dramatically increase over the next ten years and to triple over the next twenty years thus creating significant additional demand on an already over burdened transportation system; and WHEREAS, Hampton Roads is already a significant highway transportation choke point that negatively impacts the timely movement of employees, customers, goods and services by local, regional, and outside businesses; and WHEREAS, on-time departures and arrivals for all of the aforementioned is critical in making Hampton Roads more competitive and secures the quality of life which in turn attracts and helps to retain a qualified workforce pool; and WHEREAS, currently Hampton Roads has been rated by the Automobile Association of America (AAA) as the second most congested tourist destination in the nation; and WHEREAS, the traffic congestion problems in Hampton Roads also negatively affect the security of the region in the event of a major disaster in that it is currently estimated that it would take a 39-hour notice of a potential disaster in order to attempt an evacuation; and WHEREAS, as mandated by federal funding requirements, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) of Hampton Roads developed a Long Range Transportation plan (LRP) that was fiscally-constrained and air-quality conforming and that recommended six priority transportation projects: the Midtown Tunnel expansion, the Martin Luther King Extension, the Third Hampton Roads Crossing; the improvements to U.S. Route 460, the widening of 1-64 and the improvements to the Southeastern Parkway/Greenbelt; and WHEREAS, since the current 2006 MPO's LRP cannot be amended after January 1, 2007, and the next LRP cannot being completed until 2010, projects not funded for construction over the next twenty years in the LRP must be removed from the Plan; and WHEREAS, because the Commonwealth's General Fund cannot provide $465 million per year for thirty years of sustainable, reoccurring and reliable sources of revenue needed to implement the entire package, new revenue sources to include tolls, must be identified and adopted; and WHEREAS, the region will lose at least $50 million in earmarked matching federal transportation funds, and transportation improvements will be delayed for more than ten years if the MPO Long Range Plan is not updated by January 2007; and WHEREAS, localities are constrained by state law and the Constitution of Virginia in their ability to support such transportation projects without permission of the General Assembly. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Council of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia, that it strongly requests the Virginia General Assembly to recognize that the transportation issue is of paramount importance to the future of the Commonwealth. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Virginia General Assembly should not prioritize or reduce the six identified projects as each project contributes materially to a transportation system vitally needed to reduce current and future traffic congestion, thereby enhancing Hampton Roads' competitive stance in the global economy.