Photo by Yuya Sekiguchi on Flickr.

A letter sent earlier this week is reviving the debate over whether Northern Virginia should build the ten-mile, four-lane Bi-County Parkway.

The Bi-County Parkway is the latest incarnation of what some have called an “Outer Beltway,” which highway boosters have been pushing for decades. The proposed north-south highway comes with a $440 million price tag to link Loudoun and Prince William counties west of Dulles Airport.

Delegate Tim Hugo, who represents Virginia’s 40th district where the project would largely be built, asked the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to clarify its position on the long-studied highway.

In response, VDOT officials dispatched a letter saying that for the time being, VDOT has suspended negotiations seeking National Park Service approval of the highway route through the Manassas National Battlefield Park, and that it has put a hold on completing the necessary environmental studies to move forward with the project.

“VDOT is not actively working on the project including pursuing the Programmatic Agreement or the environmental approvals from the Federal Highway Administration,” the letter said.

Local support for the highway is waning

In response to the letter, Delegate Hugo and several other state and local elected officials gathered yesterday to announce it’s time to kill the project for good, demonstrating the growing opposition to the project from elected officials and their constituents.

Smart growth advocates, who oppose the highway, say that if built, the north-south route wouldn’t solve northern Virginia’s mainly east-west traffic problems.

But the highway would open over 100,000 acres of the Rural Crescent in Prince William County and of the Transition Area in Loudoun County to sprawl-style development, which would hurt the environment and put additional stress on already overburdened east-west roads like I-66 and Route 50 as commuters travel to jobs.

Next week, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will introduce a resolution to remove the project from the county’s comprehensive plan.

“This road, as we know it, is dead, or on life-support. And what we are saying is kill it totally, to remove the cloud that is hanging over all these constituents out here, all these citizens, homes, and churches,” said Hugo. “The letter says they are not pursuing the programmatic agreement [with the National Park Service]. There is no way you build this road if they are not going to do it.”

VDOT is keeping the project alive

While not pursuing an agreement with the National Park Service or completing the environmental studies at this time, the McAuliffe administration intends to evaluate the Bi-County Parkway through the project rating system outlined in legislation passed by last year’s General Assembly, known as HB2.

The legislation requires that major transportation projects in the state be scored under a range of factors, to help determine which projects move forward. Those criteria are being developed, but are likely to be ready in June.

Smart growth advocates are working to offer input to those criteria, and are optimistic that the Bi-County Parkway will not score well in terms of congestion reduction, cost-effectiveness, or environmental impact. They are urging the Governor to simply cancel the project and direct transportation funds to the I-66 corridor, regional transit, and local road needs.