Proposed program would spend nearly $13 billion on Va. infrastructure

A draft program unveiled by Virginia on Wednesday would spend nearly $13 billion over the next six years to improve the state’s infrastructure.

The state’s Commonwealth Transportation Board’s (CTB) Six-Year Improvement Program consists of nearly 3,000 transportation projects, including work on highways, roads, bridges, rail, transit and bicycle/pedestrian paths. Work would begin in July, if approved.

Hearings on the draft program begin April 21. 

The proposed work does not include new projects subject to scoring under the new prioritization process created by House Bill 2, which is intended to improve transparency and accountability by determining critical transportation needs through a fair and objective analysis.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed HB2 into law in 2014. It directs the CTB to develop and use a project selection scoring process by July 2016. The public will know how projects scored and the reasons they were selected.