WASHINGTON — As opponents of the Bi-County Parkway celebrate the placing of the project into a holding pattern, local leaders are debating what fixes can actually be put in place to ease traffic between Loudoun and Prince William counties.
At a Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday, Matt Letourneau, R-Dulles, challenged Prince William County to keep some kind of road connecting up to the Dulles area via Northstar Boulevard in local plans.
“I’ll say this to my colleagues in Prince William County…if nothing is done, and no expansion occurs, then Gum Spring Road will become the de facto Bi-County Parkway, and in some respects it already is,” Letourneau said.
Prince William County Board Chair Corey Stewart says that expanding Route 28 may be the only realistic way to help traffic over the next several years. A resolution to remove the parkway from the county’s comprehensive plan could be introduced Tuesday, but would not be put up for a vote then.
Despite claims from local leaders and from opponents of the Bi-County Parkway who serve in the General Assembly, state transportation leaders say no decision has been made on the Bi-County Parkway. It has not yet been analyzed under new requirements for unfunded state transportation projects.
“As far as I’m concerned, the project is dead,” Stewart says. “The only way that we’re going to receive relief between Loudoun and Prince William counties, in that increasingly congested corridor, is through improvements to Route 28, and possibly through the Tri-County Parkway, which runs to the east of the [Manassas National] Battlefield.”
Letourneau does not think changes to Route 28 will be enough.
“That can’t happen much more. …There’s just not much left to do on Route 28 that’s going to make much of a difference, that’s going to have an impact 20 years from now,” Letourneau says.
“Route 28 is not a panacea, but it is a good first step,” Stewart responds.
He says regional transportation money could help with Route 28, but only VDOT could build a new road such as the 10-mile Bi-County Parkway because of limited local transportation funding. The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority does have money for several Route 28 widening projects already in the works, regardless of the final Bi-County Parkway decision.
“I don’t think there’s any standoff between the two boards in Prince William and Loudoun counties; we both recognize that we need improved connectivity…and that Prince William needs better access to the airport, but it’s pretty clear that VDOT is no longer pursuing the Bi-County Parkway,” Stewart says.
He says if the Bi-County Parkway is really finished, some members of the Prince William County Board would like to swap it out of the county’s comprehensive plan so that other options could be added.
“It’s at least at a halt, and we have to look at more realistic alternatives, because the congestion between Loudoun and Prince William counties is growing; it’s backing up back roads … and something’s got to be done. But we need to, at this point, focus on more realistic solutions,” Stewart says.
But Letourneau worries those realistic solutions may not include bold-enough steps.
“We will be dealing with roads that don’t have capacity taking more and more traffic, because we’re sticking our head in the sand and we don’t want to deal with the problem, so let’s hope that the counties, now that the big stick of VDOT, so to speak, perhaps is not being wielded as much — let’s hope that the localities can do some sensible solutions here to get a north-south connection,” Letourneau says.
Opponents of the 10-mile Bi-County Parkway have expressed concerns about the impact of the proposed road on Manassas National Battlefield Park, access for some neighborhoods that could be impact by road closures and the lack of mass-transit options to keep the road from filling up with the same traffic as the roads the parkway would replace.
Supporters say that in addition to helping people get around, it would also provide a new link to Dulles Airport that could draw cargo and jobs.
