CHARLESTON — Unless some bold steps are taken to forge a public-private relationship, completion of such vital connectors as the King Coal Highway and Coalfields Expressway might have to wait until the next generation.
For that reason, Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, says he is busy selling the idea of a proposed Public-Private Transportation Act.
The idea has been tossed around in recent legislative sessions, but this year, as it becomes more painfully evident that federal and state road dollars are shrinking dramatically, McCabe says the bill could have a better chance of winning over enough lawmakers for passage.
“Progress is passing us by,” McCabe says. “We’ve got so much to do. We don’t have a strong enough economy to spend the dollars for infrastructure that we need to spend. We’ve got to find other sources. We’ve got to leverage our federal and state dollars. Public-private venture is one way, in theory, we could do that.”
His bill, and a similar one floating in the House, looks at opportunities in which a construction outfit is willing to work in tandem with the Division of Highways to produce the best of both sectors.
“It could take a whole number of avenues,” McCabe says.
“It could be a contract that does not allow for any contractual changes. It could be an agreement to look at the possibility of using some type of external funding mechanism for a toll road.”
One example McCabe cited is U.S. 35.
“It gives a flexible approach to the Division of Highways to look at other projects where the most important projects could be done in a more cost-effective manner,” the chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee said.
“It could take multiple forms. But the net effect is, it should save the state money and, in certain cases, could speed the process and it might avail us to other funding sources.”
West Virginia officials were approached by the Federal Highway Administration with a suggestion to consider the public-private concept since it has proved to be successful in other states.
“It’s another tool in the tool box to help us build some of our highway infrastructure,” he said.
Another attractive feature is that it allows the state to engage in a pay-as-you-go approach.
“From my perspective as a businessman, we’re going to miss just untold opportunities,” he said.
“We’ve got to figure out how to accelerate key projects and leverage our money in the most advantageous way possible and do it in a way that protects our West Virginia contractors. This bill is designed in a way that is acceptable to West Virginia contractors so we can build more highways, more cost-efficiently, perhaps with some more creative uses of funding sources.”
Highway authorities have been warning lawmakers for years that money is drying up rapidly at both the state and federal levels.
Just who would own any public-private road would be part of the negotiations, whenever it comes to that, McCabe said.
“Being as flexible as it is, in some ways, it scares people. But frankly, we’ve got to look at the alternatives and put them all on the table and figure out what makes sense,” he said.
“The King Coal Highway and the Coalfields Expressway are examples of roads we desperately need. And if we do business as we are doing it now, you and I won’t see those roads completed in our lifetime. The money is not there.”
McCabe views the public-private team play as a viable method to speed up road construction.
“To accelerate that process, we’ve got to do some more aggressive, dynamic things and do them in a very intelligent, smart way,” he said.
