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VIRGINIA’S Highway Department, and its handpicked (how, we do not know, and we may never know) “environmental consultant,” have decided that 1-66 is needed, in spite of projects under way to four-lane Routes 7 and 50, serving the same “corridor,” in spite of serious objections raised by responsible federal agencies, and in the face of related highway projects (the four-laning of Route 17 and 211) which becloud even further whatever technical justification may exist—if any —for completing this controversial and increasingly questionable interstate highway boondoggle.
“Questionable” and “boondoggle” are words used with full awareness that all of the pertinent environmental and statistical studies are not yet complete, but also in acknowledgement of the Highway Department’s obvious intention to bulldoze ahead with its plans no matter what. Loudoun citizens have protested Route 7 plans in vain; Route 50 is being pressed ahead despite serious local concerns; Route 211 is being planned in the face of Rappahannock doubts about whether it is even needed; Route 17 is being scheduled over the objections of Fauquier residents who stand to be paved over.
AND NOW, here comes 1^-66, too! Damn the energy crisis, the environmental laws, the statistical justifications, the engineering flaws, the contradictions with state-designated critical environmental areas and county master plans—Full Steam Ahead!
The lecturer at the PEC conference was right. The Highway Department should be the last source consulted about highways, just as the famous aphorism has it about war being too serious a business to be left to generals.□
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