PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Now called a zombie road after the Prince William County Board of Supervisors removed it from the county’s comprehensive plan, David Birtwistle, of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, urged officials to bring back the Bi-County Parkway.
The Alliance, known for championing road projects in the growing sections of western Northern Virginia, said the road would allow the George Mason University Science Center outside Manassas to boom, attract new employers to the county, and provide better access to Dulles International Airport.
The Bi-County Parkway, as envisioned in 2013 when it was being considered and hotly debated, would carry vehicles from Interstate 95 in Dumfries in Prince William County northwest on Route 234, over I-66, across a portion of the Manassas National Battlefield Park, and to Dulles Airport in Loudoun County.
“We need to move more traffic around Manassas, not through it, with a western connection to I-66,” said Birtwistle.
The highway, said Birtwistle, would also allow Prince William County to move into the 21st century and shed its bedroom community status and emerge as a destination where people not only live but also a destination where people commute.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is currently funding an environmental impact study for a Manassas/Route 28 bypass that, if built, would carry drivers from the intersection of Sudley Road and Godwin Drive just outside Manassas east to Route 28, connecting at the Bull Run just inside Fairfax County.
Prince William County Coles District Supervisor and NVTA Chairman Marty Nohe reminded Birtwistle that while the county removed the Bi-County Parkway from its planning documents in 2016, the corridor in which the road could be built remains a “corridor of statewide significance.”
“We need another option. Our [Prince William County Board of Sueprvisors] has decided this particular road would not be the option,” said Nohe.
Bottom line: Whether it’s the old Bi-County Parkway or not, a roadway connecting Prince William and Loudoun counties is still very much on the future road project radar.
The discussion was had at a meeting of the Prince William Committee of 100 on Thursday at the Wyndham Garden hotel near Manassas. Birtwistle, Nohe, and others were panelists who spoke to a crowd of about 50 people, all who came to learn about the state of transportation in Prince William.
Stewart Schwartz, of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, countered Birtwistle arguing that the construction of such a road would damage the water quality in the region, and that would connect to Dulles Airport on the western side of the airport, and that Route 28 today provides easier access for airport users.
Schwartz said Prince William needs to do more to develop more urban centers in Prince William County, and to redevelop land where old shopping centers dot the landscape.
“We’ve waited far too long for Woodbridge to become a walkable, mixed-use center,” said Schwartz, who touted the area’s access to the I-95 E-ZPass Express Lanes, Virginia Railway Express, and the Potomac River where a commuter ferry is proposed.
Nohe said an update to the transportation section of the county’s comprehensive plan would begin later this year. It could include a new plan for Prince William – Loudoun connector road.
Also at the meeting, Virginia Megaprojects Director Susan Shaw also touted the region’s 54 miles of high occupancy toll lanes, as well as 31 new miles of new toll lanes that are being constructed on I-66 outside the Beltway between Gainesville and Dunn Loring, and 10 new miles on I-95 between Stafford and Fredericksburg.
Schwartz said the toll lanes do a great job at handling peak rush hour volumes, but are not the long-term answer to the region’s traffic woes. Tolls on I-66 inside the Beltway surged again this week over $45 one way.
Schwartz also urged Fairfax County to push for more residential re-development along the Route 1 corridor, to take some of the housing burdens off Prince William County.
