The Virginia Department of Transportation may have plans for your back yard. Literally. Unbeknownst to many residents, half a dozen neighborhoods along Loudoun County's suburban fringe include right-of-ways for a major new north-south highway, an outer beltway around Washington. Winding paths, grassy meadows, forested buffers, and indeed the houses themselves in Kirkpatrick Farms, Stone Ridge, and other seemingly tranquil neighborhoods may be replaced by a four- or six-lane Western Transportation Corridor if VDOT moves ahead with current plans. Places where residents like Nancy Giordano and her son Jackson walk every day. On November 1, VDOT requested formal input from road builders to determine if private investors might be interested in building this road.

The study area for the project, proposed to connect Interstate 95 in Stafford with Route 7 in Loudoun, extends across an expansive 1,450 square mile area. But the likely route is the one recently tabled by Loudoun's Board of Supervisors amid raucous protest – the route that cuts through Giordano's backyard.

Strolling down the popular neighborhood path in the Lakes at Red Rock neighborhood, across the covered bridge to the swimming pool and playground, it's hard to imagine a major road in this setting. For Giordano and other neighbors, it's a daily roller coaster ride that won't stop. "We don't know if any of this will survive," she reflects. "There's talk that there may just be a big wall. There's talk that houses may come down, two or three rows deep from the power lines." Her house directly adjoins the right-of-way.

The Western Transportation Corridor, "WTC" or "Western Bypass" has been on and off of regional plans since the Eisenhower administration, and has been a hot button for decades. The Washington area lays claim to some of the nation's worst traffic, and frustrated commuters are hoping the road would offer relief. But studies conducted by VDOT in 1990 and 1997 found that the project would do nothing to improve commute times, and would actually add cars to some of the regions most overburdened arteries.

According to the Taxpayers for Common Sense web site, traffic on Route 50 west of 606, for instance would increase by 25 percent. The group ranks the project as #10 in its list of most wasteful road projects nation-wide. They also cite impacts on air quality, loss of wetlands, and the degradation of northern Virginia's drinking water. The proposed route narrowly misses two major drinking water sources and crisscrosses a third. The project has sent up red flags with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service. And as with any major new highway project in the Washington area, the WTC could jeopardize federal highway funding for a region already struggling to meet clean air standards.

VDOT halted its impact study of the route in 2003, and most local jurisdictions currently do not support the project. The Loudoun Board of Supervisors is split on the topic.

The road's reincarnation comes as no surprise to those familiar with the project. "What we're seeing is a convergence of developer influence to bring unprecedented new growth to this part of Loudoun County," said Laura Olsen of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. "You need sewer hookups to deliver large quantities of building lots, and that sewer has recently been approved. Now developers are requesting special amendments to approve 42,000 new home lots, principally along the WTC right of way." The bulk of those homes are currently making their way through the County's approval process as Comprehensive Plan Amendments. "But you need highways to sell those lots. The Western Bypass and the newly formed Route 50 Task Force are chipping away at that."

Mark Smith represents the River Creek Regional Homeowners Association, an umbrella group of associations in Loudoun. He's pretty blunt about the WTC. "This is a north–south solution to an east–west problem. It's about adding rooftops, not fixing our transportation problem."

Smith claims that residents weren't told the highway was planned in their neighborhoods when they moved in, and that most oppose it. "We are not anti-development. We do require communication, planning, and economic analysis, and we believe it is a moral and ethical responsibility of the development community and especially elected officials to provide these things."

In its current form, the road was floated by VDOT as a public-private partnership, dubbed "PPTA" by highway officials and others immersed in the world of transportation finance. Hank Dittmar, a transportation specialist working on transportation reform in Virginia, is suspicious of PPTAs. "They're paid for by the public to benefit private investors, he jokes. "That's what we call public-private transportation improvements."

PPTA proposals are becoming more common in Virginia, but the one just completed – the Pocahontas Parkway –has earned bitter critics. That highway, as VDOTS admits, has not produced sufficient tolls to recover its costs. Its bonds have been downgraded to junk status, and its tolls are going up.

Proponents argue that PPTAs are the best way to get more asphalt in the absence of state funds. Hobie Mitchell is one such proponent. He sits on the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), and is also one of the developers proposing a large development adjacent to the proposed highway.

VDOT claims that the level of scrutiny and public input is the same as for any other road. But Olsen disagrees. "By hiring a company to build the WTC at their profit, VDOT is closing the deal before the public even gets involved. Virginia's PPTA law does not require any public input, so VDOT can sign a contract with a company to build the WTC before they even do the environmental study or look at alternatives."

"Thus far in Virginia," she continues, "the PPTA process has proven to both reduce the level of scrutiny of impacts on communities and the environment, and [to] be a financial disaster. A bad project is a bad project, no matter how you finance it."

"What concerns our communities," says Smith, "is the lack of transparency and accountability in the process. Elected officials are required to engage all stakeholders in this process."

The estimated cost for building the WTC is $2 billion, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense. State officials have said it would cost more.

For Giordano, the cost is measured in different terms. "It's more than just a road. Our feeling is... this is our dream house. We've lived here since we got married. I intended to get to know my grandchildren here. These are homes and communities. It makes me so..." her voice wavers and trickles off. "We love our house, and we love our neighbors. Most of our money and most of our memories are here."