va rethug governor blows 250M on road never built. New Democratic governor trying to recover moneys

[rafeh1]

Last edited Mon Jun 1, 2015, 03:25 PM - Edit history (1)

How Virginia paid more than $250 million for a road that never got built

By Michael Laris May 30 at 5:26 PM
Virginia officials are trying to get back tens of millions of dollars from a private company that was supposed to build a 55-mile toll road in southeastern Virginia.

State officials had been sending the company multimillion-dollar installments each month to build the road. But the state lacked federal construction permits, so the road wasn’t built.

And now the commonwealth is out about $256 million.

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"I can’t think of a worse contract that I have seen in my years of public service,” said Virginia House Appropriations Committee Chairman S. Chris Jones (R-Suffolk) (Steve Helber/AP)

The problems help explain why top officials in Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration have recently increased scrutiny of public-private partnership deals, a sharp shift in tone in a state that has for 20 years been a national leader in pushing such projects. The changing views could have a major impact on one of the most important transportation initiatives in the state: a vast project to add toll and carpool lanes along 25 miles of Interstate 66 west of the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia.
Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne said this month that the I-66 project should not be ceded to private investors for “ideological” reasons, as might have happened in the past. Keeping the construction of toll and carpool lanes under state control could generate hundreds of millions of dollars for additional transportation projects, he said, and avoid a repeat of cases in which the state was left “holding the bag.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/how-virginia-paid-more-than-250-million-for-a-road-that-never-got-built/2015/05/30/39a1a222-062d-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop_b

[MiniMe]

1. Terry McAuliffe is a dem

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I was confused about opening title

[chillfactor]

3. that he is...

but do the governors in his state award contracts? do not know..just asking...

[pinboy3niner]

4. This happened under former Governor Bob McDonnel, a Republican

Jones said that the deal was rushed to avoid political scrutiny. The McDonnell administration was “determined to have the contract signed prior to the legislature convening in January of 2013, because they felt we would have intervened and potentially stopped the project,” he said.

The McAuliffe administration ended the payments to 460 Mobility in early 2014, after the new governor took office. In April 2015, the Virginia Department of Transportation gave notice that it planned to terminate the state’s agreement with the company. Virginia has spent approximately $300 million on the effort, including the $256 million that went to 460 Mobility and about $42 million spent by VDOT, officials said.

[Major Nikon]

5. True, but the project was commissioned by Gov McDonnell(R)

McAuliffe is the one who torpedoed what was always a stupid idea. They were going to spend $1.8 billion to build a new route 460 that paralleled the old one which wasn't that heavily traveled to begin with.

[HooptieWagon]

6. Yes. One of the DLC founders.

But apparently the project was rammed through by the previous Gov.

[FSogol]

8. DLC or not, McAulffie ran to the left and has governed to the left.

He's been a breath of fresh air and I have a hard time finding fault with the way he is running Virginia. There is no Republican bill he will not veto.

[HooptieWagon]

11. Good.

I haven't followed his record in Va.

[FSogol]

7. True, but his admin is investigating and undoing the malfesance from the former VA Gov

Bob "Felon" McDonnell. I love the trend of un-privatizing Virginia.

[MiniMe]

9. I was commenting more on the OP title

[FSogol]

10. No worries, it is misleading. I wanted to make sure no one on DU was going to

blame McAuliffe.

[rafeh1]

12. the project was rammed thru by prior rethug gov