Harrisonburg Connector Study

• Record of Decision as signed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) (PDF, 317 KB, Dec. 21, 2007)
• Final Environmental Impact Statement as signed by the FHWA (PDF, 7 MB, Oct. 18, 2007)
• Commonwealth Transportation Board resolution selecting an alignment (Nov. 16, 2006)
• Approved portion of Candidate Build Alternative 1
• Map

Quick clicks:

Southeast Connector Newsletters:

• May 2006
• March 2005
• April 2004
• Map - Southeast Connector study area
• Map - Candidate alternatives

Project Overview

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the FHWA continue to make progress on the proposed Harrisonburg Southeast Connector Location Study.

The agencies are studying the project due to its inclusion in the Virginia Transportation Act of 2000 and local transportation plans.

An early step in this process involved identifying the transportation problems in the study area, which is between U.S. Route 11 near Mount Crawford and U.S. Route 33.

VDOT will use the long-range plan currently being developed by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Metropolitan Planning Organization to help define these problems.

Transportation solutions that address these problemsare under development. Options under consideration include:

• A new highway
• Improvements to existing roads
• A no-build or do-nothing alternative
• Public transit

Purpose of the Study

The Location Study will identify deficiencies throughout the corridor, develop a range of potential solutions, and evaluate those solutions. An Environmental Impact Statement will be produced, which will document the transportation improvement concepts and their associated impacts.

How the Location Study Works

The Location Study process will follow the framework required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The components of this process include:

• Scoping: Project scoping helps determine the range of issues to be addressed in the study. It included an initial citizen public scoping meeting, held July 22, 2004, and meeting with state, local, and federal agencies.
  
  
• Purpose and need: Identifies the transportation problems or needs that the project will address.
  
  
• Alternatives Development: Identifies solutions to the project needs. During this stage the study team:
  
  
  • Develops preliminary conceptual alternatives
  • Screens the conceptual alternatives to produce a set of candidate alternatives
  • Defines no-build, transportation system management and mass transit alternatives

• Evaluation of impacts: After the candidate alternatives have been identified, the study team will conduct an evaluation of impacts. The resources analyzed include, but are not limited to:
  
  
  • Air quality
  • Farmland
  • Historic properties
  • Hazardous materials
  • Indirect impacts
  • Quality of wetlands and streams
  • Threatened and endangered species
  • Noise
  • Parks, recreation and open space
  • Social and economic impacts
    
    
• Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS): Once the resource impacts have been analyzed for each alternative they are documented in the draft EIS and circulated for public and agency review and comment. The DEIS was made available for public review on March 30, 2006.
  
  
• Location public hearing: The location public hearing is conducted once ample time has been given for the public and agencies to review the DEIS. The location public hearing was held May 11, 2006. The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) then selects an alternative. The following comments were received:
  
  
  • Oral comments
  • Written comments from hearning
  • Mailed comments
  • E-mailed comments
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers comments
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency comments

• Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS): After the CTB selects an alternative, the FEIS is prepared. The CTB selected the preferred alignment on Nov. 6, 2006. The FEIS was signed Oct. 18, 2007.
  
  The FEIS documents the action of the CTB, responds to substantive comments received on the DEIS, and is presented to the FHWA for its final decision.
  
  
• Record of Decision (ROD): The Record of Decision is a public document that reflects FHWA’s decision, the rationale behind that decision, and commitments concerning monitoring and mitigation. The ROD was signed Dec. 21, 2007.