Initially, $2.05 million was borrowed for operating money, and $20 million was guaranteed by the City of Richmond to cover the cost of planning, designing, and acquiring the right of way for an expressway. This commitment led to the City having greater representation on the RMA Board.

With more than 900 businesses and residents displaced by the construction of the Downtown Expressway, the RMA, in cooperation with the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the City Council Housing Committee, coordinated a massive relocation effort. Even so, numerous lawsuits, land acquisition negotiations, and construction difficulties caused the completion of the expressway system to be delayed for several years.

Construction of the expressway system was still in its infancy when the RMA purchased the Boulevard Bridge on November 24, 1969 for $1.2 million. Soon after, the RMA began making several improvements to the bridge. Foremost was the installation of automated toll equipment to provide more efficient toll collection.

In response to escalating demands for another route to cross the James River, the RMA built the Powhite Parkway. The parkway opened on January 23, 1973, with approximately 6,000 vehicles utilizing the facility that first day. The roadway provided residents of south Richmond a convenient route to the Carytown shopping area, and offered residents north of the river direct access to Chippenham Hospital and Cloverleaf Mall.

Later that year, on July 2, 1973, the RMA introduced the Parham Express Bus Service. The pilot program was introduced in cooperation with the City of Richmond, the County of Henrico, and the Virginia Department of Highways. The service provided a comfortable bus ride over interstate routes between a commuter parking lot in suburban Henrico County and downtown Richmond. Seven buses provided morning and afternoon round trips.

Full operation of the bus service was later passed on to the Greater Richmond Transit Company. Nevertheless, the Parham Express Bus Service was the first experiment with express transit in the Richmond area and became the model for future express bus services in the region.

Along with increased accessibility to the downtown area came the need for increased parking facilities. In 1973, the statute that had created the RMA was amended to authorize the Authority to provide parking facilities for the Richmond metropolitan area. The City of Richmond donated the land, and the RMA borrowed the funds to begin building what was to become the Second Street Parking Deck.

The Second Street Parking Deck opened on November 28, 1975. The deck provided 350 parking spaces to an area of the city that lacked parking facilities.

In 1976, the Downtown Expressway, linking Interstates 195 and 95, finally opened to the public. Also, on August 13 of that year, the RMA refunded the $2.05 million the city had lent the Richmond Trafficways Committee.

All connecting ramps and the remaining portions of Interstate 195 were completed in September 1977. When the Downtown Expressway opened, the average daily number of vehicles using it was approximately 8,000.

In 1984, another legislative amendment was passed allowing the RMA to construct and own a new baseball stadium to replace the aging Parker Field. The existing ballpark was demolished and replaced with an $8 million, state-of-the-art baseball stadium called The Diamond. Construction of The Diamond was swift. The project was completed before the beginning of the next baseball season. The Richmond Braves, the AAA Minor League team of the Atlanta Braves, call The Diamond baseball stadium home.

On June 1, 1987, the RMA introduced toll tokens for use on the Powhite Parkway and the Downtown Expressway. During that year and into the next, the RMA added travel lanes to the Powhite Parkway, widened the bridge, and expanded the toll plaza to accommodate increased traffic needs.

At the request of the City of Richmond, feasibility studies were conducted on parking needs in the Carytown district and downtown. As a result, the RMA constructed two 110-parking-space decks in Carytown. The decks opened in early 1991, providing free parking to visitors to the Carytown shopping district.

The feasibility study also projected increased demands for parking in the downtown area. At the request of the City of Richmond, the RMA again responded by constructing a 1,000-parking-space deck with convenient access to the Downtown Expressway and Interstate 95. The Expressway Parking Deck opened on February 14, 1992. Also in 1992, the RMA helped meet changing parking demands by converting the Second Street Parking Deck to an honor park system. The cost-cutting decision was based on the reduced transient parking needs for area businesses.

The RMA completed the largest single bond issue in its history -- $157 million -- in June 1992. The bond issue allowed the RMA to refinance all existing expressway debt. It also provided funds to renovate the Boulevard Bridge and replace the Authority's aging toll equipment, all without a toll increase.

The bond issue enabled the Authority to repay the City of Richmond $9.2 million which the city had provided to secure the RMA's 1973 bonds.

In 1992, a legislative amendment which allows the RMA to build additional sports facilities was approved. RMA staff participated in the development of a proposed Virginia Swimming and Diving Center, but the project did not come to fruition.

On August 17, 1992, the RMA closed the Boulevard Bridge for extensive renovations. The $8.3 million project included replacing the concrete deck, which allowed the RMA to widen the lanes and the single walkway. Throughout the renovation, particular attention was given to maintaining the historic look of the bridge and the toll plaza building. The bridge reopened on October 30, 1993.

In 1994, the RMA completed converting its 20-year-old toll equipment to a computer-based system. The new computerized system offers major improvements in the ability to generate reports to better manage the toll plazas and to track finances.

The sensitivity of the equipment allowed the RMA to introduce a new toll token in the spring of 1994. The new token was comprised of two metals in a bull's-eye design. Its use dramatically reduced the number of fraudulent tokens and foreign coins being used at RMA tolls.

To make tokens more readily available to drivers, the RMA began selling them in the lanes in August 1994. Token sales and overall usage immediately began to climb due to an enthusiastic response by commuters.

On June 1, 1994, the RMA, in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), distributed more than 22,000 surveys to drivers on the Downtown Expressway and the Powhite Parkway. VDOT also surveyed motorists using the Powhite Parkway Extension. The survey asked if patrons would support an Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system in the Richmond metropolitan area. Results, released in October 1994, affirmed that drivers would support ETC. Based on that, the RMA began to research what was available in the new technology, and an extensive study was launched to explore the feasibility of adapting the current expressway system to an ETC system.

From May 1996 until October 1996, the RMA resurfaced the Powhite Parkway Bridge with a layer of modified concrete with latex. The overlay extends the life of the structure. The project included re-striping the bridge, thereby expanding the northbound lanes from four to five.

In late 1996, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation requesting the RMA and VDOT to expedite the implementation of an ETC system. In studying the costs associated with ETC, RMA management determined that a toll increase would be necessary to cover the installation and higher operating expenses. In October 1997, the RMA Board of Directors voted to increase tolls on the RMA's expressway system. That increase went into effect on January 5, 1998. This was the first increase in almost 10 years.

The RMA, along with VDOT, implemented the ETC system -- Smart Tag -- on July 1, 1999.

In the late 1990s, the City of Richmond completed a multimillion-dollar floodwall that now protects the historic Shockoe Bottom area from flooding. The floodwall has helped the old manufacturing and market area begin to thrive once again, this time with shopping, dining and entertainment establishments. With the prospects of multimodal transportation now in Richmond’s future, the City refurbished historic Main Street Station -- a historic Shockoe Bottom and Richmond landmark that provided rail service to Richmond from 1901 until 1975 -- and reopened it to Amtrak service in December 2003. The RMA operates the station.