 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (September 2010) |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 5, 1816 |
| Dissolved | February 28, 1903 |
| Jurisdiction | Virginia |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
| Parent department | Governor of Virginia |
The Virginia Board of Public Works was a governmental agency which oversaw and helped finance the development of Virginia's transportation-related internal improvements during the 19th century. In that era, it was customary to invest public funds in private companies, which were the forerunners of the public service and utility companies of modern times. The state often invested in up to 40% of the stock to build turnpikes, toll bridges, canals, and water and rail transportation enterprises. A January 2, 1822, House Report from the Committee on Roads and Canals noted that
Virginia, in 1816, enacted a law, creating a board of public works, with power to appoint engineers and surveyors, and, also, creating a fund, to be applied exclusively to the rendering navigable, and uniting by canals, the principal rivers, and more intimately connecting, by means of public highways, the different parts of the commonwealth.[1]
- ^ "H. Rept. 17-8 - Report of the Committee on Roads and Canals, on the subject of internal improvements, accompanied with a bill to procure the necessary surveys, &c. on the subject of roads and canals. January 2, 1822. Read, and, with the bill, committed to a Committee of the Whole on the third Monday of January instant". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 4. Retrieved 24 June 2023.