RICHMOND — Mistakes were made on the latest study of improvements to the U.S. 29 corridor, and Lynchburg’s representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board said Wednesday they are grounds for rejecting the study, or at least some of its recommendations.
Several others on the 14-member, policy-making body said they agreed with Kenneth Spencer White, who drafted a resolution that would say the board does not accept the study, known as Route 29 Corridor Blueprint.
The board decided Wednesday night that it would vote today on whether to accept the study by con-sultant Parsons Transportation.
The Parsons Blueprint originally drew some possible new routes for U.S. 29 on a map, but some local governing bodies north of Charlottesville said they never saw those until the map until was shown at public meetings and they didn’t support the routes, which were later deleted. Those communities included Culpeper, the town of Orange and Orange County, said board member John “Butch” Davies of Culpeper.
“This process simply did not work,” White told the transportation board. “We now know” that in one city and two counties along the corridor, “there was a deletion of the recommendations of our consultants before they ever got to this board,” White said.
Pierce Homer, who is chairman of the transportation board and also a member of the governor’s cabi-net, said it was necessary for the board to take a definite stand today because “this is the controversial Charlottesville bypass.”
The Parsons study recommends returning rights of way for one bypass route to their original owners, Homer noted.
Board members planned to work overnight on drafting a resolution that would address the controversy over both the Charlottesville bypass and another proposed bypass in Prince William County called the Buckland Bypass, which one county wants and a nearby one doesn’t. A separate study might be necessary for the Buckland route, board members said.
Davies, who represents the Charlottesville area on the board, said White was justified in being upset about the proposed routes’ removal from the study before it reached the board.
Today’s resolution should “acknowledge that a mistake was made,” Davies said.
“It was the act of putting it on paper that created the problem,” Davies said. Those lines appeared with-out any detailed study and went through historic areas, sensitive environmental areas, and near the Wood-berry Forest preparatory school for boys, Davies said.
The study’s proposal for an eastern bypass of Charlottesville also was harmful, Davies said. That route “just isn’t going to happen,” at least not in the place the line was drawn, Davies said.
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