Grab your front-row seats and load up with popcorn. The politics behind a proposed new interchange on Intestate 95 in the Fredericksburg area will be fascinating to watch. The impetus for the project, which could cost an estimated $21 million to $32 million, is the announcement of plans by Kalahari Resorts to build a $200 million indoor water park on 49 acres of the Celebrate Virginia development. Kalahari is expected to open in December 2009.
The Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is conducting a study of the interchange and related toll road to be called the Spotsylvania Greenway. Of the interchange, Matt Kelly, Fredericksburg Councilman and MPO chair, says: “It’s not whether it will happen, it’s how best to do it.”
The Federal Highway Administration requires a study to gauge the impact the interchange would have on traffic patterns over the next 20 years, reports Kelly Hannon with the Free Lance-Star. The obvious question is: Who pays? The Free Lance-Star suggested that state and federal funds are expected to pay for 98 percent of the interchange. The next obvious question is this: If the state and feds are expected to foot the bill, does the project jump to the head of the line, ahead of literally hundreds of other road construction priorities, or does it wait until the other regional priorities have been addressed?
If private real estate interests were paying for an accelerated build-out of the interchange through tolls, a community development authority or some combination thereof, I wouldn’t have any objection to the financing piece of the interchange.
However, any traffic-impact study worth its salt would do more than examine the impact of traffic generated by the waterpark and Celebrate Virginia. It would consider the long-term impact that the interchange would have on development in the vicinity — including nearby subdivisions and shopping centers induced by the addition of an interchange — and the impact that development would have on regional traffic patterns. I don’t take it as a given that even a privately financed interchange would be a good idea — it’s not hard to imagine I-95 getting even more overloaded than it already is, thereby creating new demands upon the Virginia Department of Transportation — although I don’t rule out the possibility either.
Needless to say, various development interests, business interests, local governments and citizens groups will have a lot to say. I expect this proposal to be highly controversial. I’m looking forward to the show.