Sep. 2--CHESAPEAKE -- A group of private companies unveiled a proposal Tuesday to widen Dominion Boulevard, replace the Steel Bridge and impose tolls of as much as $2.50 per trip to pay for it all.

The group submitted the proposal under a Virginia law that allows businesses to form partnerships with government agencies on transportation projects.

Executives with the development team say the proposal is a solution to Chesapeake's worst transportation problem -- replacing an aging bridge that routinely causes frustrating backups on a road that carries 30,000 vehicles per day.

It is also the second major toll proposal in Chesapeake within the past year, coming months after another private group's plan to replace the Jordan Bridge and charge tolls of about $2 per trip.

The Dominion proposal calls for replacing the existing two-lane drawbridge with a four-lane, 95-foot-high fixed span. The bridge would have an electronic toll system so drivers wouldn't have to stop to pay. Executives with the development team said the project can be completed within 48 months and would create at least 450 on-site jobs during construction. No city and state funding would be required, they said.

S. Grey Folkes Jr., CEO of Hassell & Folkes, a Chesapeake engineering and surveying firm that is part of the development team, said that a public-private partnership is the only way this project will be done. The city has been moving forward on a $373 million plan to replace the bridge, but only about $24 million in mostly federal money has been set aside for the project in addition to the $5.9 million the city has already spent on design.

"To rely on government funding to get this project done would be false hope," Folkes said.

While Folkes and the development team believe a toll of $1 to $2.50 would be necessary, Chesapeake Mayor Alan Krasnoff has already said that tolls would be "inappropriate" for the Dominion project. Krasnoff and other council members who were reached Tuesday declined to comment on the Dominion proposal. But some members said they would be open to the idea of tolls, pointing out that the city planned to impose tolls on a new bridge, as well.

"It may be a necessary evil," Councilman Rick West said. "Are you going to stay stuck in traffic, or are you going to do something about it?"

Now that the proposal has been submitted, City Manager William Harrell and his staff have an undesignated amount of time to review it, city officials said. If Harrell accepts it, the project will be advertised and other private groups would have at least 45 days to submit competing proposals.