Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

First Victory for Design-Build Concept

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by

James A. Bacon
in

The Virginia Department of Transportation has opened the first design-build roadway project in Virginia, doubling the out-bound shipping capacity of APM Terminals in Portsmouth. The private design-build team, which included contractor Tidewater Skanska and engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, completed the $22 million project ahead of schedule.

Said Greg Lassiter, director of Design-Build Delivery for VHB: “The resulting time savings from this design-build contract meant lower costs for the Commonwealth of Virginia and earlier utilization of APMT’s marine container terminal. This project is a model of what the design-build method should be all about.”

Construction of the new interchange involved raising Route 164, a four-lane limited-access highway, 25 feet to accommodate an overpass over the new APM Terminals Boulevard. Careful construction phasing enabled all four lanes of highway traffic to be maintained throughout the project. Other improvements included extensive utility and drainage work, as well as reconfiguration of an existing highway exit and upgrades to commercial and government access roads. The roadway layout was chosen to minimize wetland impacts. (Read the VDOT press release.)

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4 responses to “First Victory for Design-Build Concept”

  1. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Whose allocation money did this road come out of?

    Was it state level or local?

    I ask this – because of this article in the Pilot Today:

    ” APM Terminals is building a $500 million port facility on 280 acres in Portsmouth that city officials expect will generate about $5.5 million per year in tax revenues for the cash-strapped city.

    A short distance up the river is the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, a state-owned facility that sits on 330 acres and generates nary a penny in direct tax revenue for Portsmouth.

    Portsmouth residents suffer traffic, noise and pollution from truck traffic at the port; however, most of the tax benefits go elsewhere – to the state government and to neighboring suburban cities.

    The same is true for the two other local port facilities run by a Virginia Port Authority operating arm on behalf of the state.

    Norfolk is home to the region’s largest port, the Norfolk International Terminals, located on 811 acres. If it were privately owned, it would generate more than $6 million for the city, City Manager Regina V.K. Williams said.

    Up the river in Newport News, the state owns the Newport News Marine Terminal, on 141 acres of prime waterfront land.

    The three cities bear the burden of hosting the ports, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said.

    “And the rest of the commonwealth enjoys the fruits,” he said.”

    I had not realized that the state built and operated most of the ports – and kept the money.

    Besides making me wonder why these are not private enterprise – I wonder who is keeping the ledger in terms of revenues (how much are they) – and what those revenues are spent on.

    Are the state-operated ports operated as profit-generating businesses or are they taxpayer-subsidized?

    Was the Design-Build road paid for by the State for the state-operated ports or did HR have it in it’s own regional plan using it’s own regional funding allocations?

    The Pilot makes a big deal about 5 million dollars in taxes – not chump change at the local level – but pretty much so at the state level.

  2. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    right – I’m a big supporter also of design-build.

    How did THIS project become a design-build?

    Why not other VDOT projects becoming design-build?

    but the unanswered question was about where did the funding for this road come from since it benefits private entities.

    and more specifically – did the money come from HR or did it come from the State itself?

    Note the article I posted stated that some port facilities in HR are state-owned and operated – why?

    and for the ones that are state-owned – are there annual business statements detailing profit/loss/revenue/expenses? In other words – are the state-operated ports subsidized and if so by who – HR taxpayers or state taxpayers?

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Re State-owned Ports. This issue should be investigated with the possibility of selling/leasing the ports and using the proceeds for improving transportation facilities in HR. Alternatively, the port facilities should be managed not only to recover their costs, but also, to the extent permitted by market conditions, to obtain funds that could be used for related transportation improvements.

    Many states around the US have obtained money by privatizing or better managing these type of assets and have obtained significant revenues to boot. The British Labour government and many other left-leaning governments around the world have done similar things. Why are we stuck with the old New Dealers, Tim Kaine and John Chichester, who cannot expand their thought process beyond raising taxes? Maybe we can trade Tim Kaine for Tony Blair, when the Prime Minister retires!

  4. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    I don’t speak with any authority about Virginia’s ports, but my impression is that port operations are extremely well run and are, for the most part, self supporting. Public subsidies are not for the port operations themselves but the significant public investment required to handle the increase in truck traffic. As for the port terminals cited in the article above, I’m pretty sure it’s privately owned.

    As a complicating factor, the Virginia ports are integrally tied to a number of manufacturing operations in Virginia — especially in the smaller mill towns. Without healthy ports, we could see a further undermining of the manufacturing-based economy of regions of the state that are not in terribly good shape as it is.

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