Bi-County Parkway is Stopped Again

At last Tuesday’s Board of County Supervisors meeting the Supervisors voted unanimously supported a resolution to remove the Bi-County Parkway from the County's Mobility Plan at this time. In 2016, the Board of County Supervisors at the time had voted to remove the project from its Comprehensive Plan. The proposal was then resurrected as part of the current Comprehensive Plan update, potentially to serve as a widening of Pageland Lane to serve the proposed PW Digital Gateway.

The Bi-County highway corridor in its last incarnation is approximately 45 miles in length, and is essentially a more direct route for north/south commuters, and cargo and truck traffic connecting I-95 to Dulles Airport and Route 7. The key elements of the Bi-County Parkway as outlined by VDOT in 2013 were:

• “Construction of a continuous high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) facility between I-95 and the area west of Washington Dulles International Airport, which would operate during peak periods in the morning and evening.”
• “Establishment of a high-occupancy toll (HOT) system for the Corridor between the intersection of VA 234 and Country Club Drive and the Washington Dulles International Airport area. Vehicles carrying three or more persons (HOV 3+) would be able to access the system at no cost, and other vehicles would pay a toll to access the HOV/HOT lanes during peak periods.”
• “Construction of a new roadway connection between the North-South Corridor and the Washington Dulles International Airport area, providing connections to VA 606 and improving regional and statewide access to the airport, surrounding freight facilities, and the Metrorail Silver Line.”
• “Provision of new and expanded transit services operating throughout the Corridor... They will provide north-south mobility as well as connections for individuals destined toward the east and west via transfers at convenient locations such as park-and-rides and rail stations. Construction of a continuous multi use trail along the Corridor for the use of bicyclists and pedestrians, allowing them to access activity centers throughout the north-south corridor seamlessly.”
• “Improvements to transportation demand management programs (TDM) within the Corridor, focused on marketing and promotion of the expanded transit services and the HOV network.”

The Commonwealth of Virginia still carries the Bi-County Parkway within their overall transportation plan. This mean that Prince William County will never be rid of the possibility of the Bi-County Parkway popping up. Prince William County community objections to this planned parkway have focused on several issues that are still of concern to the community:

• The Bi-County Parkway will drive all the east-west traffic to I-66 increasing traffic on that road.

• The Bi-County Parkway is intended to be a 4 lane and 6 lane highway that will provide direct access to Dulles Airport, but would have limited access to the Prince William community.
• The planned road will require that Virginia invoke eminent domain to take more than a dozen homes.
• Route 234 through the Battlefield that provides road access to several businesses and Sudley Methodist Church (that predates the Civil War) will be eliminated, and effectively land lock and isolate the Church within the park to a slow death. In addition, the planned  designations of “Village Mixed Use” for Catharpen would be nullified.
• Construction of a continuous high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) facility between I-95 and the area west of Washington Dulles International Airport would effectively sever northwestern Prince William County from the rest of the county and Manassas.
• The Bi-County Parkway does nothing to improve east-west traffic, instead it provides connectivity to the airport that Prince William residents do not want, divides the county and eliminates connections within our county and only benefits the Loudoun County developments.
•  The route through Prince William County’s Rural Crescent potentially damages our watershed and water resources. The Rural Crescent as long as it still exists provides a significant portion of our green infrastructure to our community connecting  the still intact habitat areas through a network of corridors that provide for wildlife movement and trails as well as pathways for pollinators. Maintaining intact, connected natural landscapes is essential for basic ecosystem and watershed preservation to ensure that there will always be clean air and water in Northern Virginia. The Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) has called the corridor one of three priority conservation area for the region.

Though there has been confusion on who requested the Bi-County Parkway reintroduced as part of the Comprehensive Plan, once again, Supervisor Candland has fought to stop it and was able to join with Supervisor Baily to convince the other Supervisors that this roadway was not in the best interests of Prince William County.