Aubrey Layne
Aubrey Layne, Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, reflects on the reforms to the state’s transport funding base amid ongoing revenue challenges. Key points: • Despite having the nation’s third-largest state-maintained road network, until recently, Virginia was ranked 40th of all the states in terms of collecting revenues for transportation. • Ongoing budgetary constraints at a federal level have forced the Commonwealth of Virginia to adopt additional revenue measures to try and mitigate an anticipated shortfall in federal road funding. • Partnerships with the private sector will be increasingly important if Virginia is to deliver the infrastructure that is needed to meet growing demand pressures. In Virginia, we have around eight and a half million citizens, and 70 per cent of the growth expected in Virginia is in our northern area, next to the capital, in six localities. It’s a lot like Melbourne, where there is a central business district but lots of area to expand, so I am very familiar with some of the challenges being faced in Melbourne’s inner city.
Our gross domestic product in Virginia is about US$426 billion (A$486 billion) – slightly above Victoria and slightly below New South Wales. We have the nation’s third-largest state-maintained road network, which means that we are in charge of around 130,000 miles of lanes. And while we are the third-largest network, until recently, we were the 40th ranked state for collecting revenues for transportation, so we had some challenges to deal with. Volume 5 Number 1
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