Federal Funding Available

As you know, one of my pet ideas is to use the Royal Phoenix site for other than light industrial uses. I envision a consolidated Town/County government complex of offices, a new court house, perhaps even a regional jail.

To compliment the core project I think it would be a great idea to create a "Western Bypass Route" to closely follow the existing railroad right-of-way adjacent to the Royal Phoenix site, from the Skyline Drive area on the southern end to the South Fork Bridge on the northern end. One big obstacle to this vision is how to connect the bypass route to the bridge route. The answer is at hand.

Funds have become available to Virginia DOT who plans to use a portion for preliminary engineering studies to replace the South Fork bridge. Any western bypass route using Llewellyn's Catlett Road right-of-way proffer requires the additional expense of at least one, possibly 2, new multi-million dollar bridges over the South Fork and maybe another new bridge over the North Fork too, depending upon where the northern terminus will need to connect, to Route 55 and a new I-66 exchange in lieu of connecting to Route 340/522.

Having the terminus at the south end of the existing South Fork Bridge location benefits traffic flow in and around the Town, creating possible shopping destinations along the old route to compliment the newly constructed buildings in the area. The bridge terminus would become a gateway portal into Front Royal and the government center. The existing Commerce Avenue bypass route northern segment could be changed to provide a more direct path to the bridge terminus/bypass route intersection, eliminating the 3 existing 90 degree turns winding through a 25 mph zone. Through traffic would have 2 routes to bypass downtown Front Royal.

This bonus Federal bridge funding provides a way to study the feasibility of the bypass plan at no cost to the Town or County. All we need is a politician with a vision and some leadership skills.

Where can we turn to find such a person?