It’s Time the County Steps Up and Faces the Transportation Challenge Before Us

At some point in the next few years this Board of Supervisors, and the people of Fairfax County, will need to make a fundamental decision about our County’s future. We can continue to ignore the transportation funding crisis that is so very apparent; letting congestion choke off our economy and standing by watching as a lack of State maintenance allows our roads to crumble into dust. Or we can take matters into our own hands and address the problem.

A third way does not exist. The State has made it abundantly clear it will not deal with our transportation infrastucture in any meaningful way and the feds are bankrupt. If we choose to not act as a county we will be choosing failure. Over the next couple decades over a quarter of a million new residents will move to Fairfax County. Why? Because it’s a great place to live. If we wanted to deter the new arrivals, I suppose we could work hard at making Fairfax County an undesirable place to live, but that would be quite counterproductive. The problem as it stands now is tremendous. Our roads and transit systems can’t handle the current demand. We must choose either to build and maintain infrastructure, or accept accelerating decline in our mobility.

At the Board’s retreat in early February, County staff provided a detailed analysis of the County’s transportation needs over the next ten years. To meet our needs, they tell us we need an additional $3 billion in transportation funding - over and above that currently provided for with Federal, State, and County funds - just to achieve a reasonable improvement. That’s $300 million a year, or an amount nearly equivalent to ten percent of the County’s general fund.

What would it mean to not meet that funding deficit? Well, roadway improvements to Route 7 (I-495 to Falls Church) and Frying Pan Road (VA 28 to Centreville Road) would not happen; it would mean forgoing new interchanges at Route 50/Stringfellow Road and I-66/Route 28; and right here in Braddock District the widening of Braddock Road (Burke Lake to I-495) would be delayed beyond our lifetimes.

We need to forget and move beyond the tired notion that the State will fund this infrastructure. The General Assembly is controlled by areas of the state with poverty and poor economies. Page County doesn’t need more roads, and they certainly aren’t going to pay for ours. Hampton Roads consists of cities, not counties, so they get a more favorable funding formula from Richmond alredy. They also have the authority to raise funds from other sources, such as a meals tax. They won’t join us in a vote to change the formulas. That would send their money north. In Fairfax, we are on our own.

Do we have to accept significantly more congestion and crumbling roads? We have a vibrant, growing economy that makes most jurisdictions envious. We have an entrepreneurial business class ready to sprint to the next level of economic development – and provide thousands of good jobs in the process. We have the capacity to provide the infrastructure capable of supporting it. The question, however, remains: are we willing to do what is needed?

For the last three years, County staff has presented both the Board of Supervisors, and County residents, with a detailed plan for meeting our transportation needs. It has outlined the projects needed and presented the Board with funding options. Yes, it would require us all to pay a little more, but the cost of not meeting that challenge has far greater ramifications. If economic growth stalls, we will all lose a lot more. So far, the Board has stuck its collective head in the sand.

Maybe it’s time to try something new. Maybe the people of Fairfax County should accept this challenge as our own and address it. Great societies tackle great challenges, they don’t ignore them. If we continue to ignore our transportation needs we risk taking Fairfax County backwards. While we cannot literally secede from the rest of Virginia, we can figuratively choose our own road toward success, leaving the rest in our tracks.

I look forward to your thoughts.

John Cook, Braddock District Supervisor