Costly Road Triggers Traffic and Sprawl

Proposal and savings
Deny funding for the proposed Western Transportation Corridor in Northern Virginia. The total project cost is estimated to be between $1 billion to $1.5 billion. The federal share has not been determined.

Background
The currently proposed Western Transportation Corridor (WTC) would run mostly through rural land from the Rappahannock River near Fredricksburg, Virginia to the Potomac River near Leesburg for a total distance of approximately 50 miles. Originally proposed as a Washington Bypass by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the purpose of the project changed when Maryland canceled its participation.

Status
VDOT completed a Major Investment Study (MIS) for the proposed corridor. In September 1997, the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) authorized an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the new highway corridor. In January 1998, the Virginia General Assembly directed VDOT to continue the MIS in cooperation with federal resource agencies, which have expressed serious concerns about the MIS. VDOT will start the EIS process in mid-1999.

Problems with the project

Taxpayer Concerns
The WTC would be a redundant road without sufficient traffic demand. The region already has several north-south corridors and others are under construction or being planned. VDOT’s own studies show that an upgrade and linkage alternative could handle the projected traffic at far less cost.

Local Community Concerns
The proposed corridor would bring unnecessary urbanization, inconsistent with the counties’ comprehensive development plans, and severely disrupt established land use patterns.

A major highway pushed through rural areas would encourage sprawl development and compound traffic problems. By encouraging the construction of new residential development, the corridor would feed additional traffic into the already overcrowded east-west access routes in the region.

Environmental Concerns
The WTC would encourage sprawl development, severely impact wetlands, and put agricultural rural lands at risk. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the WTC, in comparison to the upgrade and linkage alternative, "has the potential to directly impact up to 10 times the wetlands areas, [and] cross 10 times the flood plain area." The Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service have expressed concerns about the proposed highway’s impact on wetlands and nearby national parks. The WTC would put at risk rural and productive agricultural lands in Fauquier, Loudoun and other Piedmont counties. According to the American Farmland Trust, the Virginia Piedmont is the second most endangered prime farmland area in the country due to sprawl development pressures.

Contacts
Josephine de Give, Piedmont Environmental Council (540) 347-2334; Martha Hendley, Citizens Against Roads for Developers, (703) 754-4181; Stewart Schwartz, Coalition for Smarter Growth, (703) 683-5704; Tripp Pollard, Southern Environmental Law Center, (804) 977-4090.