As if we needed more reminding, the country has a huge gap between costs required for transportation needs and the funding sources to pay for them. The shutdown of the San Francisco Bay Bridge last week due to faulty repairs earlier this year at least had the miraculous silver lining that there were no deaths from falling structural steel onto the crowded road way.

The Washington Post reported Friday that the conversion of the Tyson’s Corner--the country’s largest suburban-based commercial center with 46 million square feet of traffic-strangled office and retail--into a 100 million square foot walkable urban place will cost $15 billion in transportation improvements. That is a huge sum even for extremely wealthy Fairfax County, equaling over $40,000 per household to be spent in only 1.2 percent of the county’s land area.

Where will that money come from? That is the question as we debate the reauthorization and hoped-for reform of the federal transportation bill. This is particularly vexing since the Highway Trust Fund is on life-support, being bailed out twice in the last two years as gas tax revenues continue to fall.

The Washington Post article went down the line of usual suspects; increased gas taxes, shift to a vehicle miles driven tax, tax increment financing ,and ended with the private property owners taxing themselves.