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Critics of the first proposal are alarmed by what appears to be the quiet resuscitation of an old adversary. Speaking to the Times Community Newspapers Editorial Board last Friday, representatives of the Piedmont Environmental Council, Citizens for Fauquier County, the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection and the Surface Transportation Policy Project questioned both the viability of the project and VDOT’s methods in reviving it.
It is a time, they said, of decreasing revenues for local governments and increasing transportation costs. Against that backdrop, the group cast VDOT as stealthily attempting to breath life into a project that could have grave environmental and financial consequences.
The bypass, they said, could literally pave the way for further development in the Occoquan watershed without solving the core traffic troubles, all at a price tag in the billions.
“I’m the first one to agree that we’ve got significant transportation problems. The question is, is what’s proposed going to solve them?” asked Chris Miller, formerly of the PEC, now the assistant director for federal affairs for the Surface Transportation Policy Project. “There’s never been a satisfactory demonstration of need that’s convinced anybody other than those who have proposed the project.”
The driving force behind the new bypass campaign, Mr. Miller suspects, is a development community that senses the time is right.
“They need significant investment in a new highway in order to open up areas that currently aren’t under intensive residential or commercial development — the western part of the Virginia suburbs,” he said. With a Republican governor and a Republican majority in Congress, "they figure that the current political
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