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Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
" Date published: 3/20/2007
By KELLY HANNON
There's renewed interest in building an access point from Interstate 95 north and south into Celebrate Virginia near the Fredericksburg Welcome Center.
The interchange could connect with a private sector proposal to build a toll road bypassing State Route 3.
The idea has gotten the attention of Gov. Tim Kaine.
He's agreed to meet with Fredericksburg area transportation officials in the next month to discuss the project, said Matt Kelly, Fredericksburg councilman and chair of the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The planning body was poised to vote last night on whether to oversee a required federal study of the I-95 interchange idea, at the request of the developers of Celebrate Virginia and Central Park, the Silver Cos.
The vote was postponed until the April meeting. By then, members will have met with Kaine, Kelly said.
The Fredericksburg company wanted an independent group to oversee the study, said Lloyd Robinson, director of transportation planning for the region's Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group that falls under the umbrella of the George Washington Regional Commission.
The study is called an Interstate Justification Report. The Federal Highway Administration requires one to be done before I-95 can be modified. It wants to know how building an interchange would impact traffic flow over the next 20 years.
"They're going to have a lot to say," Robinson said of the federal agency.
The commission would hire professional engineers to do the work.
The Silver Cos. and the Virginia Department of Transportation would share the cost of the study, estimated to be several hundred thousand dollars.
The idea for an interchange has been floated before. The Silver Cos. previously offered to pay for a new Welcome Center and access point into Celebrate Virginia, but the project never came to fruition. Subsequently, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a bid for the welcome center project last summer.
The Welcome Center is undergoing a $5.75 million reconstruction and is to be finished in July.
The old center was less than 3,000 square feet and showed wear from nearly four decades of use. A 14,500-square-foot facility is rising in its place, with bigger bathrooms, expanded parking and a brick facade.
The state's paying for the refurbishment as part of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.
From west to east, the route of the toll road was described as "running northeasterly from a point east of the Chancellorsville battlefield, in an arc, above the Rappahannock River flood plain and connecting with I-95, at the rest area just south of the Rappahannock River," according to a FAMPO document.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer sent a letter to Kelly about the project.
In the letter, dated Feb. 12, Homer wrote, "There have been several inquiries, both public and private, about how to study road improvements in the Fredericksburg area. Since all of these have regional implications, particularly for Interstate 95, I wanted to share the rules and procedures for how such an inquiry would work."
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436 "
Needless to say this is what concerned me:
From west to east, the route of the toll road was described as "running northeasterly from a point east of the Chancellorsville battlefield, in an arc, above the Rappahannock River flood plain and connecting with I-95, at the rest area just south of the Rappahannock River," according to a FAMPO document.
Drew Gruber
" Date published: 3/20/2007
By KELLY HANNON
There's renewed interest in building an access point from Interstate 95 north and south into Celebrate Virginia near the Fredericksburg Welcome Center.
The interchange could connect with a private sector proposal to build a toll road bypassing State Route 3.
The idea has gotten the attention of Gov. Tim Kaine.
He's agreed to meet with Fredericksburg area transportation officials in the next month to discuss the project, said Matt Kelly, Fredericksburg councilman and chair of the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The planning body was poised to vote last night on whether to oversee a required federal study of the I-95 interchange idea, at the request of the developers of Celebrate Virginia and Central Park, the Silver Cos.
The vote was postponed until the April meeting. By then, members will have met with Kaine, Kelly said.
The Fredericksburg company wanted an independent group to oversee the study, said Lloyd Robinson, director of transportation planning for the region's Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group that falls under the umbrella of the George Washington Regional Commission.
The study is called an Interstate Justification Report. The Federal Highway Administration requires one to be done before I-95 can be modified. It wants to know how building an interchange would impact traffic flow over the next 20 years.
"They're going to have a lot to say," Robinson said of the federal agency.
The commission would hire professional engineers to do the work.
The Silver Cos. and the Virginia Department of Transportation would share the cost of the study, estimated to be several hundred thousand dollars.
The idea for an interchange has been floated before. The Silver Cos. previously offered to pay for a new Welcome Center and access point into Celebrate Virginia, but the project never came to fruition. Subsequently, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a bid for the welcome center project last summer.
The Welcome Center is undergoing a $5.75 million reconstruction and is to be finished in July.
The old center was less than 3,000 square feet and showed wear from nearly four decades of use. A 14,500-square-foot facility is rising in its place, with bigger bathrooms, expanded parking and a brick facade.
The state's paying for the refurbishment as part of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.
From west to east, the route of the toll road was described as "running northeasterly from a point east of the Chancellorsville battlefield, in an arc, above the Rappahannock River flood plain and connecting with I-95, at the rest area just south of the Rappahannock River," according to a FAMPO document.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer sent a letter to Kelly about the project.
In the letter, dated Feb. 12, Homer wrote, "There have been several inquiries, both public and private, about how to study road improvements in the Fredericksburg area. Since all of these have regional implications, particularly for Interstate 95, I wanted to share the rules and procedures for how such an inquiry would work."
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436 "
Needless to say this is what concerned me:
From west to east, the route of the toll road was described as "running northeasterly from a point east of the Chancellorsville battlefield, in an arc, above the Rappahannock River flood plain and connecting with I-95, at the rest area just south of the Rappahannock River," according to a FAMPO document.
Drew Gruber