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1998 SESSION

986329687
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 70
Offered January 22, 1998
Requesting the Virginia Department of Transportation to assist in preserving Georgetown Pike.
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Patrons-- Howell; Delegate: Callahan
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Referred to the Committee on Rules
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WHEREAS, for decades, Georgetown Pike, Virginia Route 193, roughly parallel to the Potomac River in Fairfax County, has been recognized as one of the Commonwealth's most valuable historic and aesthetic assets; and

WHEREAS, along with an appreciation of Georgetown Pike's unique and irreplaceable qualities came an equal appreciation of the need to safeguard those qualities for enjoyment by future generations; and

WHEREAS, in 1974, Georgetown Pike became the first road to be designated a Virginia Byway; and

WHEREAS, efforts to preserve Georgetown Pike are complicated by the fact that whatever its historic or aesthetic values, Georgetown Pike is no less valuable as an essential component of Northern Virginia's highway system, serving an ever-growing population and carrying ever-increasing volumes of traffic; and

WHEREAS, the same characteristics that make Georgetown Pike appealing to the eye often make it dangerous to traffic; and

WHEREAS, although the volumes of traffic carried by Georgetown Pike would more than justify its widening from its present two lanes to four lanes, in 1979, broad-based public opposition caused the abandonment of plans to widen the road; and

WHEREAS, the 1993 Session of the General Assembly, in House Joint Resolution No. 411 and Senate Joint Resolution No. 235, requested the Virginia Department of Transportation to undertake a thorough study of Georgetown Pike and formulate detailed recommendations on policies, plans, and actions necessary to ensure the continued preservation of Georgetown Pike as an historic and aesthetic resource while being no less concerned for the safe and free flow of traffic along the highway; and

WHEREAS, in its report of the results of that study in Senate Document No. 47 of 1994, the Department of Transportation presented a number of recommendations for attaining a careful and sensitive balance of the various competing interests and concerns involved with Georgetown Pike; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Department of Transportation be requested, in the spirit of its 1993 study and consistent with the recommendations derived from that study, to contribute all its very considerable resources, talents, and expertise to the ongoing and multifarious efforts to safeguard the historic and aesthetic integrity of Georgetown Pike by, to the maximum extent possible, preserving the existing configuration and geometry of, and vegetation surrounding, Georgetown Pike; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of Transportation, the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner, and the other members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board in order that they may be apprised of the sense of the General Assembly in this matter.