American Dream

$10.8 million in Congress bill goes to Beach link

By TOM HOLDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© August 5, 2005

Quotes:

Rep. Thelma Drake said Thursday that she supports putting $10.8 million into a new interchange along Interstate 64 – in spite of the fact that the connector hasn’t been a priority for state and regional road planners – because she believes it’s a project that can quickly ease congestion.

In a region brimming with transportation needs totaling billions of dollars, putting the federal tax money into a small interchange that could help a planned development and reduce strain on nearby roads was an easy call, she said.

The $286 billion transportation spending bill approved by Congress last week contains money for a new interchange between Greenbrier Parkway in Chesapeake and Indian River Road in Virginia Beach. The interchange would feed traffic into a development planned by the Christian Broadcasting Network, headed by Pat Robertson.

“This is a project that can be built and will be done quickly,” said Drake, R-2nd District, whose district includes CBN. “It’s going to happen. I don’t know they can do it in two or three years, but I feel confident they can do it in less than five.”

The interchange is not on the region’s list of priority interstate projects, nor is it in the Virginia Department of Transportation’s six-year spending plan. No road exists that would connect to the interchange, though a development executive hired by CBN has said plans call for building one with private money. That road would cut through the development to Centerville Turnpike.

CBN also is waiting on results of a study into whether federal highway safety guidelines would allow the interchange. The Federal Highway Administration is among regulators and planning agencies that would have to approve the project.

The interchange appeared as a $1 million line item in a version of the transportation bill approved earlier this year by the House of Representatives.

By the time it emerged from a House-Senate conference committee early last week, the amount had risen to $10.8 million.

“I can’t explain how it got to be $10.8 million,” Drake said. She said she had no role in the increase.

See also this editorial in The Virginian-Pilot :
GOP pays tribute to Pat Robertson