Thursday, April 26, 2012

Letter to the Editor -- Widening of Belmont Ridge Road

This is a letter to the editor that appeared in the April 23 "Leesburg Today"

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors plans to vote May 2 on the widening of Belmont Ridge Road to six lanes. There is currently no reason to widen Belmont Ridge to six lanes unless there are plans to extend the road across the Potomac River and connect with Maryland’s Inter County Connector Road.

Why build a six-lane road from I-66 to Rt. 7 and stop? Rt. 7 is already gridlock. Why dump the I-66 traffic into Loudoun County? The traffic problems in Loudoun County are east-west, not north-south. If there are no plans to make Belmont Ridge Road the next beltway, leave the width at four lanes. Dulles Airport has Rt. 28 and Loudoun County Parkway as adequate transportation corridors and doesn’t need a six-lane Belmont Ridge Road to transport goods. Belmont Ridge Road is not located near Dulles Airport.

Look at Google Earth to see real purpose of widening Belmont Ridge Road to six lanes. The Belmont Ridge Road route is the Virginia Department of Transportation’s best clear route to build an Outer Beltway to and across the Potomac River without condemning thousands of hoes [sic]. A Belmont Ridge “Beltway” could be extended through Lansdowne by passing over an open corner of the Xerox Training Center property and “bridging” the river bottom golf course. Few homes would need to be acquired. The state of Maryland would only need to extend the “Outer Beltway” across farmland from I-270 and/or to the Inter County Connector. 

I recommend everyone who cherishes quiet, residential living in Ashburn and Lansdowne write his or her supervisor telling him or her to vote no on the widening of Belmont Ridge Road from four lanes back to six lanes. Our children who play on the soccer fields along Belmont Ridge Road should not have to be faced with the dangers of a six-lane “freeway” at the edge of the goal posts. 

Howard Miller, Ashburn

   For the latest Loudoun County traffic news and information, subscribe to Loudoun County Traffic via your favorite RSS reader, or get Loudoun County Traffic by e-mail.

1 comment:

  1. quiet living in Landsdowne or Ashburn? Really? That's a laughable concept. Y'all are jammed together worse than in SE DC. Both housing- and traffic-wise.

    However, I agree 6 lanes is pure overkill, a simple 2-lane-each-way bridge over Rt 7 and widening to 4-lanes nearer Evergreen Mills would be a better pay-off (along with more E-W options) for actual traffic problems.

    PS I am not against an outer beltway or river crossing there at all, but they should be more honest about it if that really is the underlying reason (one person speculating does not a fact make).

    ReplyDelete