The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors may soon have an opportunity to approve an expansion of Belmont Ridge Road from four lanes to six lanes, and Northstar Boulevard from two to six.

Though cloaked in the language of improved safety and traffic flow, we believe these "improvements" really represent nothing more than incremental construction of the so-called Outer Beltway, by linking the Virginia Department of Transportation's proposed "Tri-County Parkway" to I-66.

From there a link south to I-95 is but a logical pen-stroke away.

If completed, the project will facilitate north-south traffic (not east west) and help turn Dulles Airport into THE major truck-freight destination on the east coast.

Good for some folks.

Bad for Kirkpatrick Farms, Stone Ridge, South Riding, Arcola, Brambleston, Broadlands, Ashburn, Belmont, River Creek, Lansdowne, and their neighbors. Not to mention priming the west for the next stages of urban/suburban development.

Bad idea. Call your Supervisor.