Route 288 won’t be finished during my lifetime.

That’s what I was told when I first went to a meeting at VDOT about eight years ago.

I wasn’t an elected official. I didn’t even have a vested interest in transportation. I just had an interest in our local economy and wanted to make a difference in the community.

The project had languished on VDOT’s drawing board for 25 years. Bureaucrats snickered that the road had been drawn in pencil so it could be easily erased.

But I didn’t listen to them. With the backing of Richmond business leaders, I spearheaded the completion of Route 288 to create a western passage across the James River connecting I-95 in Chesterfield County to I-64 in Goochland County. And on Nov. 19, 2004, it was fully completed on budget, without tolls.

It just goes to show you what can be accomplished with an action-oriented, “can-do” approach to government-- which I call straight talk.

Straight talk like this is the first step toward improving Virginia's roads and reducing congestion. The problems aren't going away on their own.

For example, suburban sprawl can’t be stopped. People will choose to live in the suburbs, whether idealistic planners like it or not. Those who say the “only solution” is “land-use reform” or correcting the “scattered, low-

density pattern of development” are tilting at windmills.

Increasing the gasoline tax won't solve the problem either. A five-cent increase will yield only about $200 million to $250 million. That would be consumed by one major project in Northern Virginia alone. People simply won’t accept a 25- to 50-cent increase. Besides, it’s a dying tax anyway, since cars are now more efficient. No serious thinker can believe that our transportation needs can be adequately funded by the gas tax.

It’s become fashionable for certain members of the General Assembly to espouse putting a constitutional padlock on the transportation trust fund--the same folks who two years ago voted in favor of the largest raid on the TTF to the tune of $317 million. This is more lip service from those who say one thing, yet do another.

Others claim that the budget surplus can bail out Virginia’s transportation problems. Here again, the surplus is woefully inadequate to solve our long-term transportation needs.

And there’s always the old political standby of resorting to quick fixes or gimmicks to mask the problem. Unfortunately, both Gov. Mark R. Warner and Speaker Howell's recent proposals are the latest examples of of one-time fixes with no long-term solution.

So, here’s where honest straight talk comes into play.

The only way to solve Virginia’s transportation problem is with a sustained, five- to 10-year commitment of $500 million to $1 billion per year. Anything less would show no appreciation for the magnitude of the problem. I call this a “Marshall Plan."

The funding for such a Marshall Plan would have to come from a combination of sources, including tolls, reform, bonds, and general fund revenue.

First, we must utilize public-private partnership initiatives, including hot lanes and differential tolls. Route 288 was one of the first PPTA projects. It exemplified how the government and the private sector can collaborate successfully. The same principles can, and must, be applied to road maintenance.

But for the PPTA to reach its full potential, the process must be reformed to protect the intellectual property of the contactor's proposal from poaching by competitors. And VDOT’s response time must be shortened so the private contractor can have confidence in its cost of materials, such as concrete and steel, that are built into the profitability of the proposal.

Second--and this shouldn’t be news to anyone--we need to reform VDOT. The public has lost confidence in VDOT’s ability to build a road on time or within budget. VDOT should look to out-source and privatize all aspects of its programs, including road maintenance, which, as a pilot program demonstrated, can be done more economically by private contractors.

Third, we should issue general obligation bonds and/or bonds backed by tolls. Most new road projects take nearly 10 years to complete. The road is going to be there for decades. So it makes sense to pay it off over time. After all, it's a long-term investment. And a 10-year bond is a frugal way to finance road construction.

Fourth, we need to tap general fund revenue. Transportation is a top priority and should be treated as such. It's more than moving people and goods. It affects economic development, the cost of doing business, and the quality of life. We simply cannot sustain a long-term solution without general fund revenue.

Finally, we should recognize that we cannot pave our way out of this problem. The Marshall Plan must have a component for investing in rail, including high-speed rail from Richmond to D.C. We need to make the same investment in rail that we did in aviation and ports 20 years ago.

We can't mortgage our children’s future; we can't toll every intersection; and we can’t expect VDOT to ride to the rescue. But, innovative uses of a combination of sources can form a blueprint for solving our current problem over the next 5 to 10 years.

I challenge our current leaders: If you are not willing to make a long-term commitment to transportation, then you are not serious about solving the problem. With my success with Route 288, I dare anyone to tell me again that we can't solve Virginia's transportation problems during my lifetime.

-- January 17, 2005