Letter to the Editor
Can we save the river crossing?
Five years ago, I started a petition in support of a parallel road with a trail west of Interstate 95. The proposed road would link six existing roads to keep costs and impacts down, connecting to 17 existing roads and providing nearly 100 combinations of alternate routes. The petition now has over 5,000 supporters.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Fredericksburg and Stafford officials voted to conduct a river crossing study of a 10-foot-wide trail that included portions of my proposal. Approximately $700,000 was spent on the study. Many public meetings and surveys were conducted by the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (FAMPO). There have been dozens of other public meetings where the river crossing was discussed.
In December 2023, while the study was being conducted, Fredericksburg officials rezoned land for the Neon Project directly in the path of the shortest and least costly river crossing option. The rezoning was near the holidays and was not noticed by the public. Stafford officials were upset by not being notified of the rezoning. One City official said that river crossing option was dead. The consultant then added another river crossing option in the study to avoid the Neon project, but the cost of that option increased by tens of millions of dollars and has slightly more impacts.
The study and survey results are now complete with results showing the river crossing with the western network in Stafford will reduce traffic regionally by 20% under extremely congested conditions. The most congested areas of U.S. 1, the Falmouth intersection, U.S. 17 in Stafford, Route 630, Hospital Center Boulevard, Truslow Road, Route 3 near the interchange, and Fall Hill Avenue will have significant reductions in congestion in 2050.
The study also shows shorter alternate routes, high time saving factors, significant reductions in miles driven and decreased ambulance transport times. Shorter alternate routes will get us out of gridlock by giving us a choice to avoid the most congested areas. Shorter trips and time savings will get cars off the road quicker reducing air pollution significantly!
FAMPO officials are now in the process of choosing the best river crossing option, but there are some officials that want to kill it without a plan to relieve the gridlock. I say to them, “The river crossing had 78% support, how much support did you have?”
Stafford officials have recently amended the county’s comprehensive plan to identify the river crossing.
City of Fredericksburg officials have now put a comprehensive plan amendment and a rezoning on the fast track without a general development plan. The city’s proposed comprehensive plan amendment doesn’t identify a right-of-way for the river crossing.
If city officials approve the blank comprehensive plan amendment, that plan would then go to city staff for administrative approval without the public knowing.
True leaders need to stand by the river crossing and identify the right-of-way for a river crossing in their comprehensive plan!
Joe Brito
Stafford County
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”