Efforts to improve Route 29 have been ongoing. By way of background, the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) approved a resolution, dated December 17, 2009, to address concerns that VDOT’s Route 29 plan at that time did not adequately garner a consensus of support. To prevent future confrontations, the CTB had VDOT produce a template for future improvements to Route 29 in order to prevent VDOT from pushing improvements that lacked a consensus of support from the County, business, the existing neighborhoods, preservation and historic groups. A CTB Subcommittee was appointed by the Secretary of Transportation on February 10, 2010 in an effort to improve the process.
It is our belief that the resulting 2010 CTB Addendum, produced by the CTB Subcommittee and accepted by the CTB on June 15, 2011, is in direct contradiction to the current VDOT proposal to restrict our access to Route 29 at these four Intersections, Rt. 600/Broad Run Road, Rt. 676/Riley Road, and/or Rt. 215/Vint Hill Road. We attended the CTB public hearing on their current budget and plans and made our opposition known. We suggested to CTB and VDOT that we would organize the community to help develop a consensus plan and VillageNOW is the result. VDOT is already in receipt of a $2.48 million grant from the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program to limit our access to Route 29 at the Route 600/Broad Run Church Intersection, with a total of over $6,000,000 allocated in VDOT’s current budget for these “improvements”. In addition there is almost $1,000,000 of Vint Hill and Brookside rezoning proffered funds being held in a Transportation Improvement Escrow Account that can be used to improve and address access at Vint Hill Road, Riley Road and Broad Run Church Road.