Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The Pocahontas Parkway Pickle

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

The “Road to Ruin” blog has raised an important question regarding a potential bail-out of Interstate 895, also known as the Pocahontas Parkway. An Australian company and Irish bank want to take over rights to operate the parkway, a toll road that skirts around the southeastern edge of Richmond.

The million-dollar question: How would private-sector owners stimulate enough traffic to pay off the bonds and generate a profit? By fostering growth and development in eastern Henrico, where someone else will have to pay for infrastructure and public services? Read details here.

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

  1. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Jim:

    I just noticed…you wrote the Road to Ruin post! Ha ha. You were like, “The Road to ruin raises a great point.”

    nice self-promotion!:)

  2. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Whatever it takes to budge you guys over to the Road to Ruin blog so you can light it up like you do with Bacon’s Rebellion. It gets lonely on this side of the fence!

  3. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Ray Hyde seems to be on vacation.

  4. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    This is farm season for me, and I’m working my tail off, plus my new job has had me on the road a lot. But, I’m off of VRE and Metro: I got a newer better job in the burbs, closer to home.

    I thinke we make a mistake arguing about who pays for infrastructure for new residents: after all, who caused the new residents, and who paid for our infrastructure? I’m not even convinced that new residences cause infrastructure that is a net tax loss, as frequently claimed.

    If we turn the roads and water supplies over to private companies, we may be placing ourselves in the same position as India was when Britain controlled the salt tax: we’ll be paying tolls for critical public services to private enterprise. If it turns out cheaper than what VDOT can do, so be it, but we can’t very well build roads and then complain when people want to use them.

Leave a Reply

Read More