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County adds voice
to chorus of ‘Nos!’
By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
On Nov. 7, Rappahannock’s supervisors added their voices to those who are just saying "No!" to a proposed superhighway which would place enormous new development pressure directly on Loudoun and Fauquier count ties and indirectly on Clarke, Rappahannock and Culpeper. In a unanimous vote, they went on record opposing any western alignment for a bypass intended to divert traffic around the Washington metropolitan area.
Bellomo-McGee, Inc., the consulting firm hired by the Virginia and Maryland Departments of Transportation to assess possible routes for what is termed the Washington Bypass, is expected sometime this month to announce four alternatives for futher detailed study.
Two of those alternatives will go east from Interstate 95, crossing the Potomac River near Dumfries or Fredericksburg and roughly following the Route 301 corridor north to the 1-95 and beltway intersections south of Baltimore. That is the alignment favored by Maryland’s highway planners.
The consultants are expected to present two other alternatives which go west, running from Route 95 at Fredericksburg through either Prince William or Fauquier county to Loudoun and a new Potomac River crossing above the District to connect with Interstate 70 west of Baltimore.
To achieve the stated goal of diverting traffic — particularly trucks —from the existing Washington Beltway, “logic dictates an eastern bypass,” said County Administrator John McCarthy, adding this would be a reasonable route for north-south traffic wanting to skirt the Baltimore-Washington area.
“However, there’s a great deal of effort — and treasure — being spent on trying to find a way to the west.” Asked by the board who's doing the spending, Mr. McCarthy cited Virginia Governor Gerald Babies, who sees highways as spurring the state’s economic development; his Secretary of Transportation, Vivian Watts; and private interests that stand to gain from this “development highway,” as the Federal Highway Administration has described the proposed Western Bypass.
A highway following a western route through the Piedmont and over into Maryland’s Frederick County will not significantly reduce truck traffic on the existing Capitol Beltway, according to Bellomo-McGee’s studies, and it will not significantly alleviate congestion on that
See RESOLUTION, p. 20
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