| U.S. 29's road warriors
Virginia Business
April 2004
U.S.
29 is seeing more road rage than usual these days, but
it's not from shoddy driving. As Danville and
Lynchburg get closer to completing bypasses, tempers
are rising over Charlottesville's unwillingness
to build its bypass and open up an important commercial
corridor.
“For Charlottesville to hold the rest of the state
hostage by forcing people to endure almost 30 stoplights
is not acceptable,” says Rex Hammond, president
of the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce. “It's
not their highway. It is a U.S. highway.”
Charlottesville-area leaders, though, say the proposed
road is poorly planned. Plus, says Dennis Rooker, vice
chairman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors,
it won't do much to speed traffic flow. “Because
it swings out, it only bypasses a 4.5-mile section of
Route 29,” he says. “It would save, at most,
two minutes of travel time.”
So far Charlottesville region planners have only approved
funds for preliminary engineering and buying right-of-way
for the 6.2-mile road on the city's west side.
And, many local lawmakers are leaning toward a flatter,
eastern bypass. In the meantime, the city is putting
priority on upgrades to the congested eight-lane section
of U.S. 29 that runs through the most congested part
of town.
The state has already forked over more than $40 million
on land acquisition and planning and appears to be losing
patience. Gov. Mark Warner wants the Virginia Department
of Transportation to provide a definitive answer by
spring on the fate of the proposed bypass, and senior
transportation officials are discussing alternatives.
Legislators have joined the fight. The Virginia Senate
passed a bill championed by Sen. Stephen D. Newman (R-Lynchburg)
that calls on VDOT to build the road regardless of local
opposition. Charlottesville-area officials called that
bill “punitive” and illegal, since it would
take away its power to direct federal highway funding.
Another bill in the House of Delegates would allow property
owners to create a tax district and raise money for
an even longer bypass.
Business leaders in Lynchburg and Danville, who recently
pleaded their case with officials at VDOT and the Charlottesville-region
transportation planners, worry that Charlottesville
will abandon the road project. Rooker didn't see
it as a likely scenario, since the state threatened
years ago to cut off transportation funding for the
area if the project was dropped.
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