click image to see map of Loop Road

Shenandoah Valley Network Press Release on I-81 DEIS Released 11.29.05
VDOT's Study

CAP Press Release on March 23 Public Meeting

CAP's Comments at the July 22 VDOT public scoping meeting on the Southeast Connector

Rockingham County Comprehensive Plan

About the Loop Road    
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The loop road or beltway proposed by the Comprehensive Plan would likely begin at the intersection of Interstate 81 and Route 682 near the Green Valley Book Fair and travel northeast, impacting the Cross Keys Battlefield. It would intersect Route 33 with a new cloverleaf interchange at the intersection of route 33 and route 276 and continue back to Interstate 81 north of Harrisonburg to finish the first half of the loop. On current maps, the proposed belt-way would then head west in view of the new homes in Harmony Heights and turn south down 910, one of the few existing roads in the alignment. The beltway would then cross I-81 and finish the loop at Pleasant Valley Road. The plan proposes other new roads, such as a loop around Dayton.

This massive beltway would destroy houses and neighborhoods, ruin farms, trample ag-forestal districts and impact the Cross Keys Battlefield. School bus and emergency service traffic would be disrupted, while sprawl and uncontrolled development would accelerate. For many residents, the beltway would fundamentally change the character of Rockingham County.

Looking at what beltways and bypasses have done to communities in other parts of the state, residents can assess what would happen in Rockingham County. The beltway around Richmond, Route 29 north of Charlottesville, and Northern Virginia tell stories that frighten many county residents. Studies and experience have shown that more roads bring more traffic. While this sometimes seems counterintuitive, past experience has shown that as new highways are built or widened development follows, triggering more cars and trucks on the road. In the case of the proposed beltway, this new highway would cut through prime farmland destroying a number of agricultural enterprises. Upon this farmland, residents would likely see more strip malls and housing developments, creeping their way toward Massanutten Mountain in the east and Mennonite farmland in the west.

Many people are further out-raged about the loop road plans because the new commercial development that would appear on prime farmland would likely shift from other parts of the county. Typically, new roads do not create new economic development for the county as a whole, they just shift it from another part of the area. In the case of the proposed beltway, the new houses, fast food restaurants and big box stores would mostly be shifted from other parts of the county-from the mall area at I-81 and Route 33 and from existing residential areas. Harrisonburg has seen this happen already. While Harrisonburg Crossing is being built adjacent to I-81 on the old Dunham-Bush site, three of the anchor stores are moving from the old Valley Mall and Skyline Village Plaza. That will leave the strip mall with three large empty stores. At the same time several sites on south Main Street still have large vacancies and there are numerous empty storefronts in our old downtowns: Harrisonburg, Elkton, Broadway and Timberville among others, caused by the stores moving to newly opened business locations.