Articles

The Creature from Stumpy Lake

The $2.5 billion Southeast Parkway will provide a short-cut to the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Critics say the mega-project will needlessly open up fragile wetlands to development. 

by Peter Galuszka

Stumpy Lake marks a transitional zone in Hampton Roads. To the north lies the scattered, low-density subdivisions and shopping centers that make up much of Virginia Beach. To the south, across the line in Chesapeake, the scene is much more rural with farms, small ranch-style houses and wetlands. The lake itself is fringed by gnarled cypress trees. Snowy-white egrets keep watch over dark, tannic waters. 

The tranquility of the man-made lagoon will change forever, however, with the construction of the $2.5 billion, 21-mile-long Southeastern parkway, which will skim past its southern shore. An interchange a few miles away at Indian River Road in Virginia Beach will replace winding country roads with gas stations and strip malls.

Southeastern Parkway, on the planning books since 1986, has been given priority status by the General Assembly along with a source of funds. The project will likely finish its federal review this fall. The next step will be for the newly formed Hampton Roads Transportation Authority (HRTA) to press on with funding and construction planning.

Proponents argue that the Parkway will ease traffic congestion in south Hampton Roads by offering an alternate route to Virginia Beach’s oceanfront. It would avoid much of the perpetually crowded Interstate 64, which involves crossing Hampton Roads at two bottlenecked tunnels. Opponents retort that the real purpose of the highway is to open large swaths of farmland to development. It will do little to mitigate congestion, they say, while destroying scores of acres of sensitive wetlands.

“Studies show that during high traffic, the old way to the beachfront on Interstate 264 from I-64 is 57.4 minutes. On the Southeastern Parkway during the same times, it will be 50.8 minutes,” says Skip Stiles with Wetlands Watch, and environmental group. “So, you’re going to spend billions on this road to gain about seven minutes.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have voiced similar doubts in their comments for a Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Without big changes, a Corps expert said, “We will continue to have skepticism to the benefits of this project when compared to the significant impact it has on natural resources and the environment.”

Increasingly, the Parkway looks like a done deal. The Cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake have given their approvals, albeit with some reluctance in Chesapeake’s case. The Commonwealth Transportation Board okayed the project in 2005. And the newly created Hampton Roads Transportation Authority has been given revenue sources to pay for construction.

The HRTA will likely negotiate with a private entity to build, operate and maintain the road. The authority still has to work out toll schedules and figure out how much money from the $168 million in new fees and taxes will go into the project.

As part of the EIS process, some 150 acres of new wetlands will have to be secured to make up for the acres of wetlands that the project will destroy. The authority will have to negotiate land purchases or easements for the wetlands. In addition, according to the Virginian-Pilot, it will have to help work out relocating 157 families, 14 businesses, five churches and three cemeteries.

That’s a tall order, and the HRTA can’t begin yet to take on the load. The authority can’t even actively search for an executive director yet. That post is being filled temporarily by the executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. As of the moment, the authority will not assess fees until next April.

Delays could boost the cost of the project, which is estimated by VDOT to run between $2.3 and $2.7 billion. However, VDOT officials say there are ample safeguards built into the estimate. According to Loretta Markham, a location studies project manager at VDOT, these dollar amounts are figured in 2014 dollars, the date that is expected to be the mid-point for the project’s construction. Additionally, VDOT has built in a buffer to cover a 25- to 50-percent cost overrun.

Virginia Beach officials shrug aside environmentalists’ complaints that the project isn’t needed, will spur development of traditionally rural areas and destroy sensitive habitat. Says Virginia Beach Vice Mayor and HRTA member Lois R. Jones: "My job is to make sure that Virginia Beach continues to be a priority in the first group of projects.” 

Other projects considered priorities by the General Assembly include a third crossing over Hampton Roads near Craney Island, a new Midtown tunnel in Norfolk, an extension of the Martin Luther King Freeway, and widening Interstate 664 in Newport News and its bridge tunnel to six lanes. A new superhighway to replace U.S. 460 from Petersburg to Suffolk is also on the list.

The U.S. 460 project is considered by some planners to tie in closely with the Southeastern Parkway. Building a new superhighway paralleling the existing U.S. 460 south of the James River, some say, will offer beachgoers a speedy alternate to I-64 north of the James, which is often packed with stopped cars during vacation season. The new road would link with I-64 in Suffolk and then travelers could use the Southeastern Expressway at an interchange near Dominion Boulevard in Chesapeake to go to the beachfront.

The new road near U.S. 460 raises its share of questions as well. Its cost estimates range from $1 billion to $2 billion. Critics question whether such a massive investment will do much to alleviate traffic at current chokepoints. Private consortiums led by foreign companies are pushing proposals. One proposal by a Swedish and Australian group would build the 55-mile-long project for up to $1.91 billion with no public money. Separate proposals from two Spanish-led consortiums offer dollar estimates of from $1.05 billion to $1.9 billion, albeit with hundreds of millions in public money.

Top state transportation officials have made it plain that the state has no funds for the U.S. 460 corridor project and that any money has to come from the HRTA or from tolls, whose estimates run as high as $13 per car.

Environmental groups, such as the Coalition for Smarter Growth, oppose both the Southeastern Parkway and the U.S. 460 projects. Regarding the Parkway, coalition executive director Stewart Schwartz says, “It’s our suspicion that it is being used to open new areas of development and does not do much to relieve traffic.” The current plan, he adds, “shifts investment in infrastructure to another part of the region. It would further undermine core cities.” 

Robert Cervero, a land use expert at the University of California at Berkeley, while noting that he doesn’t know specifics of the Hampton Roads projects, says that “highways can induce growth simply by virtue of providing access to previously poorly accessible locations.” What happens, he says, is up to local politicians. “If they simply accede to developer interests and allow growth to happen business-as- usual, my guess is that in a fast-growing setting like Hampton Roads, yes, a major parkway would unleash growth pressures and threaten national treasures like the Dismal Swamp.” The U.S. 460 corridor project would pass near the northern part of the swamp.

Likewise, the Southeastern Parkway could impact sensitive waterways, Wetlands Watch believes. “The project cuts across the headwaters and upper drainage areas of the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge and the North Landing River that drains into North Carolina coastal bays,” John Blandin, president of the group, wrote to VDOT in 2005. Back Bay is undergoing great pressure form development, he noted.

Even when HRTA gets up and running and starts raising money through its fee assessments, it is still likely to be a few years until the Parkway construction can start. HRTA and VDOT would have to buy out property owners and negotiate to find extra wetlands to mitigate those destroyed. Over time, the total cost of the project is likely to increase.

At a minimum, Southeastern Parkway will change forever rural parts of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake that have so far resisted a makeover into strip malls. Some local residents say that sprawl will come about regardless of whether the Parkway is built. But if the critics are right, it’s a high price tag to gain a few minutes driving time to the beach front in vacation season.

-- August 30, 2007