Project History

Beginning in the 1980s, transportation officials in Virginia considered the Pocahontas Parkway corridor for a potential east-west Interstate-grade connection between I-95 and I-295 southeast of Richmond. In 1983, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved the current roadway alignment. While the project was originally envisioned as a free interstate route, VDOT was unable to find sufficient funding to develop the project.

Under the legal framework created by the Virginia Public-Private Partnership Act of 1995, VDOT created the Pocahontas Parkway Association in 1998 to finance the project. The original Pocahontas Parkway procurement was unique among 63-20 Corporation road projects, as VDOT, rather than the Parkway Association, hired the constructor. In June 1998, after nearly a year and a half of negotiation, VDOT entered into a fixed-price design-build agreement with a team comprising Fluor Daniel and Morrison Knudsen, both large U.S. engineering and construction firms. A large component of the project's cost was construction of the James River Bridge. Construction began in 1998 and the Parkway was completed in phases between May and September 2002.

The cost of the original Pocahontas Parkway project was $381 million, financed using the following funding sources:

  $354 million - Tax-exempt bonds issued by Pocahontas Parkway Association 63-20 Corporation

  $18 million - State Infrastructure Bank Loan

  $9 million - Federal Funds for design