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Study group calls
for hold on R-O-W
By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
ANNANDALE — An advisory committee to the Northern Virginia Regional Transportation Plan task force has voted to back studies for both western and eastern bypasses around metropolitan Washington, D.C.
The NVRTP’s citizens’ advisory committee, in a 1611 vote while meeting here on Monday, adopted a resolution supporting further examination of an Interstatestyle, north-south highway with alignments following both sides of the District .
The prospect of a bypass slicing through Fauquier and Loudoun counties has created considerable controversy in Northern Virginia; an engineering consultant to the Virginia and Maryland highway departments is expected this month to recommend proposed corridors for the freeway.
VDOT will conduct public hearings on the corridors late next year.
In its resolution, the advisory committee recommended “planning, corridor right-of-way reservation and possible construction of both eastern and western limited access bypasses . . . , including a crossing of the Potomac River above Washington Dulles International Airport and generally to the east of Rt. 15.”
The citizens group also requested the Virginia Department of Transportation to “integrate fully any final decision for the right-of-way recommendation of the corridors” into the second year (1989) of the NVRTP’s process.
Gov. Gerald Baliles formed the task force, which has been working for a year to produce a comprehensive transportation plan to relieve the region’s traffic congestion. Proposals compiled by the task force’s three committees — policy, chaired by Tranportation Secretary Vivian Watts; technical, chaired by VDOT commissioner Ray Pethtel, and citizens advisory, chaired by William A. Plissner — are being presented at a series of public hearings this month.
The policy committee’s list of projects has a price tag of around $9 billion and calls for computer testing. With existing funding options, only $4 billion is available to finance the improvements.
While the list includes an eastern bypass, with “eastern-most alignment” specified, a western bypass isn’t on the list.
However, the consultants, Beliomo-McGee of Vienna, will narrow choices for detailed analysis to four corridors — two east and two west.
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