Why wont Northern VA make route 9 wider?

Question

Eastern Panhandle is making WV Route 9 wider. Making it a 4 lane highway from Berkeley Springs, WV to the VA boarder. Since Northern VA will not approve the road, there will be a bottle neck once you get to VA.

Route 9 has been the subject of considerable debate. West Virginia is constructing a four-lane expressway by-pass of the current Route 9 - a winding two-lane rural road - to U.S. Route 340 in Charles Town. The expressway will end at Route 9 at the Virginia state line [1]. Upgrading Route 9 in Loudoun County is opposed by local groups that want to preserve the rural feel of Western Loudoun by limiting traffic and thereby also limiting growth.

Limiting traffic, it is more like control. Because the traffic is there. the road is maybe 20miles long on the VA side, which should take about 20mins. But in the mornings it could take about an hour on that road.

Everyone wants to live in WV due to cheaper living and they work in VA due to higher paying jobs.

Answer 1

Why should one state use their tax dollars to improve roads that will mainly help people from another state? Most of the people using the road to commute are not paying taxes in VA. You say yourself they want to live in WV because it is cheaper, but want to take advantage of higher pay in VA. VA taxpayers and voters do not gain from the road, so they will not pay to improve it!!

Answer 2

The Route 9 situation is unfortunate given how many people have purchased $200K McMansions when the same house costs $700-800K in Northern VA and MD.

WV, being progressive, is widening roads for its citizens but VA, in trying to draw the line with Smart Growth, refuses to widen Route 9. Plus, a widened Route 9 would allow easier access to the Charlestown Casino.

A widened Route 9 will dump more traffic onto an already crowded Route 7 - which will dump more traffic onto an already crowded Greenway - which will dump more traffic onto an already crowded Dulles Access Road - which will dump more traffic onto the local streets in Northern VA as well as I-495 - and ultimately this traffic will find itself on the already crowded I-66.

In 15 years, Metro should be past Dulles and near Route 9. Perhaps VA should build a 10,000 space parking lot for all those WV Commuters and let them all use Metro. Sadly, I think nuclear bombs will be detonated in the DC Metro area before I see this plan come to fruition.