BRR should be expanded to 6 lanes. I see more traffic on this road and it connects to Rt.7, 267 toll road and Rt.50.
I would vote for the expansion.

It’s all developer driven, no need to six lanes.

Even the right of way will mean eminent domain for some communities. It’s the road and developer’s lobbyists who try to make everybody believe we need six lanes. Also the road “guys” like to make Belmont Ridge Road part of the out beltway, right by residential communities.

Just a couple of points:  The ultimate six lanes (or even 4 lanes) won’t be fully built out unless a) traffic is bad enough to require it, and b) there’s money to build it, which means not any time soon.  If some time in the future, it does in fact need to be widened, it’s going to cost even more to expand, because the county would have to buy that right of way (don’t know how the county would get it in the case of by-right developments) in addition to actually building the road.  It’s a PLAN people.  It gets reviewed every 5 years—updated to reflect changes in developments, populations and traffic demands.  Further, it’s not like this proposed expansion just popped up.  It’s been in the plan since its inception in 1995.  VDOT hosted information sessions (I attended one at Stone Bridge a while back).  I think the 6-lane right of way needs to stay in.

As someone who lives within view of Belmont Ridge Road and drives it during morning and evening rush hour every work day, I am astounded by the plan to widen it at all, let alone to six lanes.  Each morning, I nose up to Belmont Ridge, prepared to wait to make a left into all the traffic and I find… none.  I only have to stop so as not to be guilty of running a stop sign.  We don’t even need a stop light.  If there’s no traffic at rush hour with two lanes, and there are many, many already congested roads in the county, why spend the millions here?  As a taxpayer, I’m concerned about my money being spent on unnecessary road construction.

The plan also calls for walking paths on BOTH sides of the road.  Have you looked at the west side of Belmont Ridge between Hay and Rt 7?  There’s a water treatment plant, a rock quarry, and a storage facility.  How many pedestrians do we expect to see hiking between those destinations?  If you cut out the path on the west side, you save money and can shift the whole thing further west away from the homes on the east side of the road. 

The one place some work is needed is at the intersection of Belmont Ridge and Rt. 7.  Backups there are bad during morning rush, but I think that may be more a factor of the light timing.  If not, a longer right turn lane on the northbound side of Belmont Ridge would alleviate much of the problem.  In any case, the backup only exists at morning rush.

Finally, I know some people have cited the fact that this plan is available for public viewing, the public has had a chance to comment, etc.  But just because the public can have its say DOESN’T mean anyone will listen to us.  A lot of people have been very vocal about this plan, but the board just goes ahead and does what it wants.  The views of the people most affected by this road widening are ignored.  And unless you back up to Belmont Ridge or sit in endless traffic every day on it (unlikely, as that would only apply to one intersection), then what do you have to complain about concerning this plan, OTHER than the fact that your tax dollars will be wasted and other, more needed projects will go undone?

When will transportation planners in Northern Virginia realize that building 4 lane roads with this much traffic will only lead to headaches and more costs later as you have to widen those 4 lane roads?  This is the last straw for Sally Kurtz.  I am so glad she is leaving this year.  How anyone can sit for 8 hours in a meeting and still vote “wrong” is abhorent.  Not just that, why would she vote against an additional lane for a road that is desperately needed for the future?  “No Brains Sally” at it again!  Still finding ways to screw her constituents.

@Joe Friday

You seem to have taken my response a little personal and you really missed the main point.  I am pointing out that Kurtz’s excuse of an “eight hour marathon meeting” for her incorrect vote was pretty sorry.  I have worked more than a day in my life and I am well aware of what it means to put in an extra long day, so I do not want to hear it. Your right I was not there nor did I need to be to make my point.  Eight hours is no longer a meeting it is a work day.

I do say thanks for the info, you are right, I have not read the planning for the area I mentioned, hence the obvious questions about it.

Rocket, I don’t think you were there (or watched on TV/internet) the meeting in question when they adopted the CTP. Or any other long business meeting or public hearing. Of course there are some breaks (lunch, one or two 15-20 min. potty breaks between items), but by and large, 8 hrs. is normal for a day meeting, with 5-6 for a night hearing. Sally doesn’t get a mulligan for her vote; she made it, she said she made a mistake, and that’s that. She’ll have to live with it. And if you are curious what plans that “they” (I assume you mean the County government, which means the plans the BOS adopted, which are plans that went through numerous public workships and public hearings during their development and review) have for the Belmont Ridge Rd corridor, they are online at loudoun.gov/planning. All you need to do is look and read.

And the “they” that are constructing a wider road are the private developers with approved upzonings of their properties along BRR. THey are building it to a 4-lane standard within the right of way already granted. The adopted CTP has the road noted, in it’s ultimate County build-out scenario condition, for 6 lanes within the already provided right of way (I am unsure if they would go in the ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ of the 4-lane configuration).  With it’s location as the first (if heading east) means of N/S access after Goose Creek, and the amount of residential it connects to, direct shot to Route 50 and further south, connection w/ Sycolin traffic coming south from Leesburg, and eventual interchange at Rt. 7, it is going to blossom as a cross-county route, and will indeed benefit drivers with 6 lanes. The ROW is already there to accomodate it. By the time it’s necessary to be 6 lanes, and there is funding to make it 6 lanes, the other problems and issues facing the County are unknown and unimaginable.

Wow, just wow.  I drive Belmont Ridge everyday and I know they are currently widening a section by the new construction adjacent to the Greenway, but I had no idea they were trying to squeeze six lanes in there.  This makes me wonder about what plans they have for that whole area.

And to @I am not allowed…

You are so right.  She had a marathon eight hour meeting; really, she sat in a single meeting for eight straight hours?  I highly doubt that, she may have had a marathon eight hour day.  I just cannot believe there were no breaks, no lunch or no casual conversation.  No one had to step out and take a personal call.  Please.  This sounds like someone who was not paying attention to what she was voting for. I do think six lanes are excessive though.

The headline doesn’t match the text.  Where does it state anything about u-turns?

When I go vote I am not allowed to change my mind after the fact - why should she be able to?

If your elected officail is having a “Senior Moment” then they should step down.

Traffic impact studies?? From what generator?? If she didn’t like the methodology of traffic projections that were used (like so many no-growth critics), then just say that. More TIS’s is exactly opening up the whole plan to scrutiny, and scrutiny can last forever. It’s supposed to be updated every 5 years = so it can start again in about 4 years.  Leave it alone and let it do what it’s supposed to do - guide the development of roads by developers (who are the only folks w/ money to build roads these days, thanks VDOT and no-new-tax Republicans).