The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) plan to get the state’s roads and bridges up to “fair” condition would cost about $13.1 billion based on the department’s estimates.
VDOT’s entire six-year improvement program highway construction budget is $16.9 billion. The drafted six-year plan includes new roads or roadway widening projects, new interchanges and other expansions.
VDOT and local governments would need to spend $7.9 billion to get structurally deficient bridges into fair condition and $5.2 billion to get other pavement into fair condition. Side roads in Northern Virginia are in some of the worst shape, since prioritizing funding has typically meant pavement work focused on interstate highways or primary roads.
In the last two years, VDOT has spent around $100 million in maintenance funding on secondary road paving in northern Virginia, which has increased the proportion of those roads in at least fair condition from around 30% to around 40%, as indicated by VDOT officials. Around 85% of interstate and primary road lane-miles are in fair or better condition, while around 60% of secondary road lane-miles across the state are in fair or better condition.
Statewide, VDOT has about 127,000 lane-miles of roads, including more than 5,500 lane-miles of interstate. There are more than 21,000 roadway bridges. Among bridges that carry major roads, the percentage of bridge deck area in poor condition dropped from 9.4% in 2010 to around 4.7% from 2014 through 2016. It is now 3.8% according to VDOT data.
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Source: WTOP-FM (Washington, D.C.)
