Impacts and links to VDOT presentations

Posted on by Marco Sanchez

Transportation infrastructure is critical to our region and our economy, and yet funding for existing and new roads is limited. PEC and our partners have consistently called for a “Fix it first” approach to ensure that repair and enhancements to existing roads and transit are prioritized. Recently President Obama also sounded the call for the same focus.

When considering a new highway that would directly and indirectly impact the Manassas National Battlefield Park (Battlefield), it is prudent to reconsider the 2005 Environmental Impact Statement that VDOT performed for the Tri-County Parkway (TCP). Now that the TCP is a critical 10-mile segment of the recently proposed 45 mile Northern Virginia North/South Corridor of Statewide Significance (N/S COSS), the impacts stand to be much broader:

  • There is a newly proposed four-lane corridor connecting the N/S COSS to the west side of Dulles Airport that could generate significant new traffic volume
  • Land is proposed to be taken from the Battlefield and associated Historic District The Rural Crescent of Prince William County and Transition Area of Loudoun County would be subject to pressure for unplanned development that continues a costly pattern of scattered growth
  • Scattered growth in the Rural Crescent and Transition Area would bring much more traffic to already overcrowded east-west roads
  • Once the door to more scattered development occurs, more infrastructure would be in demand, and more impacts would result
  • In addition to negative impact on the historic battlefield, the environmental impacts on our streams and wetlands for the entire corridor are extensive in a time when the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed needs to reduce pollution sources to air and water.
  • It would set a negative precedent if a new Environmental Impact Statement is not required for taking land from a historically significant Battlefield and associated Historic District.

Links to recent VDOT public meeting presentations: