Henrico County, Virginia's hometown news source since 2001

By Tom Rappas | December 6, 2021

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (center) talks with green city developer Michael Hallmark (foreground, left) at the Woodman Road expansion project on December 3, while (from left) Fairfield District Mike Schnurman, Henrico Legislative Liaison in charge of Frank Thornton, U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberg (District 7) and Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson (Tyrone Nelson) are watching. (Tom Lapas/Henrico Citizen)

After the U.S. Congress recently passed a $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act-a measure designed to comprehensively transform the U.S. transportation system-U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited Henrico on Friday. To observe the bill. Federal officials hope that the bill will promote demonstration projects across the country.

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and former Democratic presidential candidate, joined a group of local and federal officials at the Woodman Road expansion site in Glen Allen to discuss when public funds helped pave the way for private development What might happen. This is his second stop (after a Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina) on a tour to promote the benefits of the bill.

"If you make the right public investment, private investment will follow," Buttigieg said, echoing similar comments made by Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas earlier on the scene. "This is a handshake between public and private that really makes our country and community work."

After constructing a $4 million roundabout at Woodman Road and Greenwood Road for the first time, Henrico County officials are now extending Woodman Road north to connect Mill River and the Virginia Center community. The latter’s connection will provide another key access point for Henrico’s new indoor arena being built in the center of Virginia, and eventually lead to the nearby GreenCity eco-region, a $2 billion project that will be the largest in Henrico’s history. Development projects.

The extension will also provide recreational space in the form of sidewalks and part of the Fall Line Trail, a 43-mile paved path between Ashland and Petersburg at a cost of $300 million, which is expected to attract a lot of attention when completed within a few years use.

"This [road], coupled with the intention to expand transit services on the Brook Road Corridor... will help transform the area and the area into a sports tourism destination, attracting hotels, new housing, restaurants, etc.," Henrico’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dan Schmidt, who is also Brookland district director, said at the event on Friday. "This is another example of how to use strategic investment in public infrastructure to attract private investment and opportunities."

The core focus of the widespread IIJA is to repair and upgrade the country's faulty roads (of which, according to federal officials, one-fifth of them need repairs) and bridges (of which about 45,000 need to be repaired).

On December 3, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (Pete Buttigieg) spoke to members of the media at the Woodman Road expansion project in Glen Allen, while (from left) US Representative Donald McEchin (No. District 4) and Abigail Spanberg (District 7), Dan Schmitt, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Henrico Board of Directors, and Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas watched by. (Tom Lapas/Henrico Citizen)

But the bill also allocated funds for a variety of other infrastructure improvements—from investments to help airports and ports operate more efficiently, to forward-looking initiatives, such as funding 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in response to upcoming The wave of electric cars. And zero-emission vehicles. (General Motors announced earlier this year that it would stop producing traditional gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Other companies are also aiming at similar goals. President Joe Biden announced a goal this summer to make all new cars in the United States by 2030. Half of them become electric vehicles.)

The bill promises more than $7 billion in funding for the state of Virginia, some of which will eventually go to places like Henrico, where Friday’s sunset casts a long shadow on the new soil, local and federal officials—including U.S. Senator Tim Kane and U.S. Representatives Donald McEachin (District 4) and Abigail Spanberger (District 7)-dreaming of the future loudly.

The Woodman Road project “emphasizes how critical infrastructure improvements can be a prudent, wise and environmentally conscious growth model when supporting leading sustainable development projects,” Schmidt said.

Vithoulkas added: “As a county, we have seen time and time again that wise investments in public facilities and infrastructure have a direct and positive impact on the economic vitality and quality of life of our communities... They are also private investment and Catalyst for growth.

"We certainly welcome all the attention that infrastructure has received in Washington."

Spanberg sees the Woodman Road extension as a unique example that IIJA may help replicate in thousands of other communities across the country.

"It creates a bicycle space, it creates a place for people to traffic, it creates a reason for building communities and developing our communities," she said. "The truth of the matter is that our roads, bridges, Internet infrastructure, railways and bicycle lanes really bring people together. They connect us together and remind us of our common future.

"Henrico County does continue to be a model of how we serve the community in a responsible, forward-looking, and people-centered manner."

Buttigieg said the transportation project “should always be about connections, not divisions.” He was referring to a trip to Richmond earlier on Friday, where he witnessed the I-95 highway built through Jackson Ward in 1955. How to destroy the vibrant black community in this city.

Regarding IIJA's funds, Buttigieg simply said: "We must do it well", because "in our lifetime", there may no longer be the opportunity to use such a large amount of funds to do this.

On December 3rd, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (facing the camera) talked with participants of a roundtable meeting of business leaders at the Henrico Government Center. (Tom Lappas/Henrico Citizen)

After Glen Allen showed up, Buttigieg and Spanberger had an hour-long roundtable discussion with 13 business leaders from the region and state at the Henrico Government Center. They described some of the transportation-related challenges they faced.

These problems include truck drivers having to find longer routes to bypass bridges that cannot bear the weight of the trucks (causing delays in the supply chain process) to companies such as Performance Food Group worrying that it will not be able to take advantage of the 21 new facilities it is building. Time, because the microchips required to run each of the technologies that will be included are unlikely to arrive after the building itself is completed.

"No one wants a network of warehouses or grocery stores owned and operated by the federal government... This is not the way to work," said Buttigieg, who asked for a new supply chain czar at the federal level. "Of course, the operation of the private sector relies on public infrastructure, and we recognize our responsibilities."

Henrico Economic Development Agency executive director Anthony Romanello told Buttigieg that as much as 20% of Henrico County’s annual $27 billion economy is put on hold due to labor and supply chain issues. He cited a phone call with a local new car dealer in East Henrico that morning. The dealer usually has 300 new cars, but due to a standstill, there were only 5 on Friday.

Romanello said that due to the shortage of roof insulation materials for new buildings, development across the country has also been delayed.

Participants sometimes disagree on whether there is a shortage of truck drivers; Brian Peyton of Teamsters Local 332 said no, but truck drivers are often misclassified, resigned, and later engaged in other jobs in the industry, while Dale Bennett of the Virginia Trucking Association held the opposite view. , The cited research shows that the industry must strive to continue to attract new drivers.

"For many people, this is a path to the middle class," because drivers without a college degree can earn $60,000 or more a year, Bennett said.

Several roundtable participants, including Jamie Stellwag of Richmond furniture retailer LaDiff, described their frustration. They didn't know whether the products they ordered arrived in a week or two or took four months or more to appear.

"You don't know yet," Stellwag told Buttigieg and Spanberger, who explained that some of the items ordered by the store from American suppliers take months to arrive, while those from Canada may only take 10 days.

To further complicate the problem: the challenge of reserving space on international shipping containers, in some cases, the price of which has soared eight times or more (for example, in some cases, goods increased from US$4,000 to US$32,000) .

Buttigieg said that federal officials are trying to alleviate shipping issues by working with large users (such as Walmart and other companies) to ensure that their items not only arrive quickly, but also quickly unload and move to make room for their own. Small users of the transportation network provide port space.

"There are many other customers and small and medium-sized enterprises... Of course, they will not rent their boats, and their contracts do not have enough numbers to be able to do this work like some large companies do," he said.

Gary Wood, chief executive of fiber-optic internet and cable provider Central Virginia Power Cooperative and its subsidiary Firefly, described having to wait to connect new customers because the necessary components are located at the dock in North Carolina. A solar project that the company is planning received all the necessary approvals in October, but the costs associated with it doubled from the supplier, and the facility is now shelved for two years.

Buttigieg told attendees that he also hopes to help promote coordination between large and small organizations and government entities, creating opportunities for the development of "duplex and triplex", so that municipal projects can be arranged to install various private utility lines at the same time.

"When I saw [how], my former mayor went crazy... We used to pave a beautiful new road, and then I knew that next we would cut it again for utilities [installation] ," Buttigieg said.

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