CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle supervisors used their annual meeting Monday with area legislators to, among other things, urge finding a way to shore up VDOT funding approval for county transportation projects.

Supervisors across-the-board expressed that constituent concerns among so many things they consider is traffic and roads.

Deputy County Planning Director Kevin McDermott pointed out that of the 165 current priority transportation projects on the county list, only four are getting VDOT Smart Scale funding in this budget biennium, which is the primary funding mechanism Virginia roadways.

“What we need in my opinion is a Governor Baliles moment here, where he staked his entire reputation on a tax increase dedicated to massive transportation improvements,” said White Hall Supervisor Ann Mallek after McDermott’s presentation.

54th House District Delegate Amy Laufer, 55th House District Delegate Katrina Callsen, and Tracy Eppard, the legislative assistant to 11th District Senator Creigh Deeds, attended the meeting to hear the supervisors’ requests.

Rio Supervisor Ned Galloway talked about what he heard at the latest meeting a few weeks ago with the Virginia Association of Counties, “It doesn’t really matter the size of the county; whether it’s rural, urban, or its northern Virginia or southwest; everybody’s talking about transportation funding, not just the funding of it, but also the criteria to get things approved.”

“I think when you have, in the last round of Smart Scale, over $30-billion in applications made when jurisdictions have to limit applications…. there’s clearly not enough resources to get them done.”

“You know, we just had Thanksgiving and I’ve noticed something at my house, when I host a dinner for ten people and six more show up, I either have to carve up the portions even further for them, or I have to go get more portions,” Galloway said.

“Or I’m going to be a bad host because my pie’s a lot thinner than the year before.”

Galloway said they were told at a Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting recently this next round of Smart Scale for 2028 is going to be even more competitive.

Galloway noted the projects localities across the Commonwealth are applying for are all needs for safety and economic development, but the pie is just too small.

He pointed out to Cville Right Now an application this last round was where 5th Street Extended meets I-64 where cars are backing out onto the interstate.

“The project we submitted to deal with that as well as the crossovers, and we have a lot of accidents plus pedestrian access over there, was not funded.”

“I was surprised that didn’t get funded because of all the concerning pieces, I mean it’s economic development, it’s public safety, it’s pushing cars out onto the interstate, it’s moving people from one side over the 5th Street Station, and it didn’t go anywhere,” Galloway said.

He asks how if this going to be funded one day when VDOT said the next round is going to be even more competitive.

Galloway told Cville Right Now, “I think the General Assembly needs to have a funding discussion of how transportation is funded and they need to figure out new ways, whether its moving revenue around or generating new revenue, to be able to handle the immense needs that are being submitted by localities from around the Commonwealth.”

“They have to contend with that.”

At the meeting, Rivanna Supervisor Bea LaPisto Kirtley said, “I get calls a lot that VDOT is not maintaining the roads, VDOT is not filling the potholes and things like that which is important also.”

McDermott presented to the meeting that while funding stays relatively stagnant, costs continue to go up.

In fact, he noted there are fewer funds going toward new construction because maintenance costs are rising.

Along with the rising costs of maintenance, new construction is expensive also.

He provided an example of the roundabout construction cost at 250 and Old Trail in western Albemarle which in 2022 had a cost estimate of just under $13-billion.

Construction is underway, but the cost went up in 2024 to $16.7-billion.

And to provide a comparison over time, the roundabout that has been in operation a few years at 250 and Critzer’s Shop began with construction in 2016 with a price tag of just $5.8-billion at that time.

Delegate Amy Laufer said funding for transportation projects grows more challenging as the primary funding is from the gasoline tax where revenue is falling as drivers have gone to more fuel-efficient vehicles or going to electric.

She said there are also ways to work on to be more efficient with construction costs with one of the things she’s been working on being asphalt recycling.

“We can make the road with the same asphalt, that actually saves millions of dollars if not billions, and time efficiency.”

Delegate Katrina Callsen weighed in, “This is new to me, Supervisor Galloway, I have not heard conversations about VDOT in our meetings in the past.”

“I hope conversations like this will make their way to Governor Spanberger’s new team, there’s going to be a new brand-new administration and presumably a lot of new people in the Department of Transportation and it would absolutely be a time where there could be a moment of focus on transportation.”