Richmond's Route 288 - Who's Brilliant Idea Was that Again?

The Richmond region committed hundreds of millions of dollars to building Route 288, part of the jagged ring road about the urban/suburban core. Not only did the project soak up every thin dime of new construction dollars for the region for several years to come (until the General Assembly paid off obligations this past session using funds from the state surplus), it's diverting toll revenue from the Powhite Parkway.

According to an article in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, the number of vehicles going through the toll barrier at the Powhite Bridge fell 8.7 percent in June and 8.5 percent in May. But not to worry, say officials with the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, the dip is only temporary. In the long run, traffic will rise. That's encouraging!

Rt. 288 may well qualify as Virginia's most poorly conceived road project of the past 20 years, which is saying a lot, considering the competition. Let us count the ways.

• As part of the circumferential highway around Richmond, Rt. 288 does not connect with Interstate 295 to the north. Motorists have to zig onto Interstate 64, drive a few miles, and then zag back onto I-295. Nice planning, folks.
• The original premise for fast-forwarding Rt. 288 no longer applies. The highway was meant to serve the vast West Creek office park west of Richmond when Motorola committed to building a $3 billion microchip plant there. Microsoft reneged, but plans for Rt. 288 kept on plodding ahead. Other than Capital One's 10-building campus, there's still not much there. And given trends in the commercial real estate sector -- large-scale redevelopment in downtown Richmond and Innsbrook, plus the rise of the mobile workforce, which requires less office space -- it may take decades before West Creek fills up.
• Rt. 288 is fulfilling its promise of accelerating suburban sprawl. A major mixed use project is planned for the intersection of Rt. 288 and U.S. 360, located on the metropolitan fringe. And that's just beginning.
• Rt. 288 sucked up all the oxygen in the room, i.e. funds for new construction projects in the Richmond region. The General Assembly solved that problem earlier this year by spending General Fund revenues, in effect, bailing out Richmond at the expense of the rest of the state. Regardless, the alternate opportunity cost of the project is huge: The money could have been spent on creating better connectivity inside the metropolitan core, where most people live and work, rather than creating connectivity outside of the core, where people may go in the future, thanks in large part to Rt. 288 itself (talk about a self-fulfilling prophesy!)

Rt. 288 is what you get when politicians get too involved in making transportation decisions.