click image to see map of Loop Road

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

Comment on the Environmental Impact Statement released by VDOT that continues to move the loop road project forward.

Basics about the Loop Road

Rockingham County Comprehensive Plan Maps

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

VDOT Proposes I-81 as Loop Road

Like a runaway truck, a proposal to build a beltway around Harrisonburg rumbles on. For more than six years, VDOT has been pursuing a plan to build a limited access (think I-81) beltway around Harrisonburg. Public sentiment has been consistently and overwhelmingly against this road project. Now, on November 29th, VDOT released its Tier I I-81 Environmental Impact Statement, which, according to Kim Sandum, President of CAP, "confirms her fears" that "the loop road proposal would become additional capacity for I-81."

Here is Page 17 of the Executive summary:

"There are two locations along I-81 where the potential impacts from the I-81 improvement concepts, especially displacements, may rise to the level where a corridor on new location may be prudent. These sections are the I-77 overlap section near Wytheville (Milepost 72 to 81within SIU #2) and a section in Harrisonburg (Milepost 243 to 251 within SIUs #6 and #7). At these locations, FHWA and VDOT propose to evaluate corridors on new location, as well as widening the existing facility, if a "Build" concept (or portion of a "Build" concept) is advanced into Tier 2."

The corridor from milepost 243 to 251 is essentially the loop road. Hearings are to be held in early 2006 on I-81 as well as on the Southeast Connector. Please watch for further information on the public hearings and plan to attend to express your concerns about this gigantic road proposal.

You can comment on the EIS at 81info@VirginiaDOT.org.

If you won't personally be affected by the loop road, why should you care? A project as massive as the loop road devours road budgets. (More than $25 million for one cloverleaf interchange, for example.) And since Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Bridgewater, Dayton, and Mount Crawford are tied together in a new traffic planning organization called the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the future fates and budgets of each of these regions are affected by the others. Funding in Bridgewater, for example, will be affected by beltway spending near McGaheysville. Both city and county residents in and out of the study area will be affected by this beltway. ANYONE can comment on the project.

But it’s not just funding that affects regions outside the study area. The specific project being considered is just a piece of a bigger plan. Alignment of the first piece of the beltway sets up the pathway of the next piece. The road in the neighboring community could be a pathway aiming directly at yours. But let’s not lose sight of the question before us. Rather than arguing over whose property to use for the beltway, we should remember the real question is, "Should we build this road at all?"

Email us at CAP@PreserveRockingham.org for further details and background.