Last year when I was first running for Congress, I said that the number one job for our next Congressman was to make sure that Northern Virginia gets its fair share of transportation funding.
The Appropriations Bill that passed over the weekend contained millions of dollars for badly needed transportation infrastructure improvements in Northern Virginia, including:
- $974,000 for the I-95/Fairfax County Parkway interchange in Newington
- $300,000 to replace the deteriorating bridge over Accotink Creek on Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road) in Fairfax City
- $584,400 for interchange improvements at Routes 1 and 123 in Woodbridge
- $500,000 for sidewalk and street improvements in the Town Haymarket
- $1 million for construction of a western bus maintenance facility in Prince William county for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission
- $500,000 for the Richmond Highway public transportation initiative in the Route 1 corridor of Fairfax County
- $3 million for rail cars for Virginia Railway Express.
Here's what the Potomac News & Messenger said in the Editorial page this week:
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-11, is bringing home the transportation cash, and thank goodness for that. While our area's traffic woes and commuter crying continue, Connolly is doing his best to be the people's representative.
...clearly the man is doing his best to look out for our area and its commuters.
While Connolly is doing his job at the federal level, we are awaiting the swearing in of our new governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, who spent quite a bit of the campaign telling the people what they wanted to hear about transportation.
...Here's hoping that we will see from McDonnell the same interest in our traffic concerns as we are seeing from Rep. Connolly.
Click here to read the entire editorial.
