Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) In yet another indication of the growing controversy surrounding tolling on Interstate 66 inside the Beltway, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe came out swinging at State Senate candidate Hal Parrish, calling his ad “dishonest, disingenuous, and lying.”
Parrish’s ad states he’ll oppose “any new toll on a road that you already paid for.” McAuliffe said there are no new tolls. “The only change will be a single rider who, today, is not allowed to go on 66 inside the Beltway during rush hour; that single driver will be given an option to go on it if he wants to pay. That’s it!”
“Hal Parrish, I saw his ad today. He is just lying. But Hal Parrish is doing that because he doesn’t want to talk about his horrible record on women, on guns.” McAuliffe said.
“I think it’s unfortunate that the Governor is taking personal shots on me,” Parrish told WMAL. “We need adults to have adult conversations.”
Parrish proposed making the Virginia Department of Transportation look at widening the highway and adding lanes before tolling it.
“I know Arlington does not want lanes added to 66 inside the Beltway. But today, we’ve got to think regionally,” he said. “I’m trying to be the adult in the room, to have a good, positive conversation about solutions. The Governor sounded angry. But the people that should be angry are the people of Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas park.”
The inside-the-Beltway proposal is separate from the outside-the-Beltway project, which gained approval from the Commonwealth Transportation Board this week. Under the plan, Interstate 66 from Haymarket to the Beltway would be widened to accommodate three free lanes and two High Occupancy Toll lanes in each direction. The inside-the-Beltway proposal would implement a fluctuating toll to existing lanes without widening, with exemptions for high-occupancy vehicles.
Governor McAuliffe also backtracked on tolling for reverse commuters, or drivers who head away from D.C. in the morning or toward it in the evening, saying the proposal is still getting tweaked. Those drivers would have had to pay under the original plan.
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