Henrico’s 10-year capital improvement plan includes projects estimated to cost $4.6B

Henrico County’s capital improvement needs during the next decade are estimated to total about $4.6 billion, according to the county’s Fiscal Year 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Program. Of that amount, county officials estimate that they’ll need about $2.2 billion for transportation projects and about $863.1 million for education projects.

The county uses the CIP as a guide to plan for projects that typically will require significant investments and take more than a year to complete. Each year, officials prioritize certain projects from the list – those that are deemed most critical during the next five years – and begin funding some of them through the county’s capital budget, one year at a time. Longer-term projects – those expected to be required within six to 10 years – are placed on the list so that officials can begin planning for them.

Last week, the Henrico Planning Commission heard details about the $540 million in project requests for the coming fiscal year, about $327.1 million of which are proposed to be funded through County Manager John Vithoulkas’s proposed FY 24-25 budget.

“This is one of the most robust capital budgets we’ve ever submitted,” Vithoulkas said.

Vithoulkas explained that as scale of expenses and the size of the budget has grown, the county is now able to focus more on environmental efforts, drainage and stormwater remediation, pedestrian improvements, and affordable housing.

“We didn’t used to do roundabouts or sidewalks on state roads,” he told the commission. “Now we’re working on a prioritization process, and we have 150 projects in the works.”

Henrico has seen a diversification of revenues, such as meals tax funds, which Vithoulkas explained allows the county to operate more on a “pay-as-you-go” basis with some capital projects.

“We’ve not had this in years past,” he said. “This bodes very, very well for the future of the infrastructure replacement we must undertake.”

Even so, Vithoulkas said, most capital projects are still debt-funded. Voters most recently approved a $511-million bond referendum in 2022, and seven of its projects are slated for funding in the coming fiscal year from the sale of nearly $111 million in bonds.

Henrico recently sold those bonds at an interest rate of 3.07% – a rate so low it wasn’t thought possible by county officials.

“Henrico has reached the upper echelons of local government when it comes to bond ratings,” Vithoulkas said. “Our bonds are actually rated higher than the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America.”

“It’s exciting times,” said Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, the chairman of the board of supervisors and the board’s representative on the planning commission. “Every budget year is more exciting because we keep building on everything we do.”

Among the projects proposed for funding in the capital budget: $122.3 million in education-related projects, including the replacement of Quioccasin Middle School and initial funding for the replacements of Johnson, Longan and Jackson Davis elementaries; nearly $120 million for water and sewer projects and $5 million for countywide pedestrian improvements.

Henrico officials plan to replace many of the county’s emergency service vehicles, and Vithoulkas and his chief of staff, Cari Tretina, said that electric vehicles are being piloted within the government fleet (except for school buses, which they said don’t provide a worthwhile return on investment).

Tretina added that one of the biggest obstacles is the lack of charging stations, so Henrico applied for and won a $1.4 million federal grant to install them in every magisterial district. The county only needed to provide $330,000 in matching funds and was the only locality in Virginia, and one of only four in the Southeast, to receive the grant.

Henrico Budget Director Justin Crawford pointed out that the county has managed to meet new stormwater remediation requirements without requiring a separate tax.

“Our approach is that every year we get a benefit,” said Vithoulkas.

The recommended $327.1 million capital budget for the coming fiscal year would include the following school system projects:
• $79 million – Quioccasin Middle replacement
• $10 million – Public school roof and mechanical replacements (school officials had requested $12 million)
• $9 million – Maintenance and rehabilitation projects countywide
• $6 million – school bus replacement
• $5 million – Johnson Elementary replacement (initial funding)
• $4.5 million – Longan Elementary replacement
• $4.5 million – Jackson Davis replacement
• $2 million – technology improvements
• $1.3 million – Environmental Living Building
• $1 million – playground replacements

It also would include about $12.5 million for a number of drainage projects throughout the county, $2.5 million for Tuckahoe Creek Park Phase II; and $8.8 million for new police and fire vehicles to replace aging ones.

– Citizen Editor Tom Lappas contributed to this article