Rt. 15 Lucketts bypass receives skeptical public feedback

By Grace Bennett

On June 4, Supervisor Caleb Kershner hosted a meeting with project staff at Smart’s Mill Middle School in order to receive public input on the proposed alternatives for the Route 15 Lucketts bypass. Staff reviewed four alternative road alignments along with a presentation updating attendees on the project’s progress, which is currently in the planning phase.

Staff plans to return in October 2025 for a follow-up public hearing with the four alternatives narrowed down to two. A singular recommended bypass alignment will be presented to the Board of Supervisors in early 2026.

The project began with an endorsement by the Board of Supervisors in 2019. Later in 2022, a Comprehensive Plan Amendment was made, and the next step is identifying which road alignments are the most traffic-efficient, the lowest-impact for the Village of Lucketts, and the most supported by residents of Loudoun County.

As it stands, project staff has performed data collection, a traffic analysis, desktop research of local environmental resources, and a refinement of property alignment as relates to the bypass. Staff has concluded that the current conditions of Route 15 surrounding Lucketts need improvement due to severe traffic delays, long queues, poor intersection service, and high travel times at low speeds.

Southbound traffic volumes, for example, number roughly 26,200 vehicles daily. By 2055, staff predicts an increase to 30,600 southbound vehicles daily, along with a correlated increase in crashes and congestion. The intent is for the bypass to divert traffic around Lucketts without creating pileups by funneling vehicles through the Village.

A host of issues will need to be addressed before the project can move forward. The length and cost of the project has yet to be fully explored, as is the case with impacts on property, businesses, the environment, and the character of Lucketts.

These considerations would be made in depth during the project’s next phase. A more thorough traffic analysis will soon be under way to avoid issues such as bottlenecking or merely moving the congestion to a different area.

Staff briefly outlined the shapes of the four alignment alternatives during the presentation. The first—the westernmost road alignment—forms a long bend to create the most efficient flow to dodge Route 15’s intersections. The second is similar, but the bypass deviates from the main road at a later point and reconnects earlier. These two alternatives could be mixed and matched in terms of their entry and exit points. 

“They’re not exclusive options,” Kershner explained.

The same jigsaw potential is true of alternatives three and four. The third road alignment takes northbound traffic through the Village of Lucketts, but southbound traffic would be diverted nearby. The fourth option similarly takes northbound and southbound vehicles on separate alignments.

Staff has made visuals of each road alignment alternative available to the public. After the presentation, maps were set up in the meeting room to encourage general feedback, and a plethora of questions from attendees were answered by representatives.

Regarding the economy, staff has not yet evaluated ingress/egress for farms and businesses, although that will be happening soon in the next phase of study.

Staff has assured the public that, during construction, traffic control will be taken into consideration. The majority of work will be located outside of traffic patterns by nature of the bypass’s placement off the main road.

Attendees questioned the volume of commuter traffic from various sources that channel into the Village of Lucketts. While Maryland contributes between 70-75% of vehicular flow, the numbers between West Virginia and Pennsylvania are unknown, although staff has data from a few years prior on record for reference.

Members of the public also questioned whether the Route 15 bypass would be migrating the problem from one place to another rather than solving it. Rather than creating a new roadway, it was suggested to turn problematic intersections into roundabouts. 

Staff replied that the roadway is controlled by the Virginia Department of Transportation. As such, it must be able to accommodate trucks of a certain size, and constructing a roundabout large enough for this purpose would involve the removal of buildings. Moreover, to slow down the fast-moving traffic in the area, they would need to add sweeping curves to the road—which would wipe out more infrastructure.

“One of the objectives is to try to maintain the character of the Village of Lucketts, and honestly, if you try to put a roundabout in the center of Lucketts, you’re going to wipe out a lot of Lucketts,” said Design Manager Mark Hoffman.

Attendees raised concerns over impacts to the JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary. Staff has taken care to factor wildlife into the planning process; all proposed road alignments will travel either north or south of the sanctuary with none cutting through.

Similar questions were raised about preventative measures for animal collisions. Staff has undergone much discussion on that front, and the current design incorporates culverts under Route 15 to allow wildlife to cross safely below the road.

Attendees asked how staff plans to incentivize drivers to use the bypass rather than taking the usual route through the Village of Lucketts. Staff explained that the roads will be altered in favor of the bypass; vehicles will have to make an extra turn to get into Lucketts, whereas the bypass would take them along a direct curve.

Members of the public at the June 4 meeting wanted to be certain that the construction is in good hands. “We want smart work,” said Alex Isaac, a former candidate for Congress and invested attendee.

Other comments expressed uncertainty regarding the project’s overseers. “Why is the county considered the expert planning consultant in such an important and sensitive transportation issue?” inquired another attendee. The residents are seeking to be more active voices in the developments taking place in the area they call home.

Some communicated their frustration with the county’s presentation and ability to rework traffic in the Village of Lucketts. “Doesn’t this just move the problem?” asked many during the Q&A portion of the meeting. 

Others wondered whether staff’s efforts are focused on the right place. “As long as there is one two-lane bridge across the Potomac with a traffic light just across it, will this really address congestion?”

Several of the attendees expressed disappointment at the answers given to their community’s traffic concerns and questioning over which historic buildings and resources will be impacted. “We’ve done a desktop inventory of it,” said Hoffman, “but that’s just to give us an idea as we develop these preliminary alignments.”

Staff assured those present that the public will remain updated on the process. “We’re going to be preparing a full report of proposed alignments that will be presented,” said Hoffman. “We’ll work with the staff on that—that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors, and that’ll be made publicly available after the Board of Supervisors endorses it and a decision’s made.”

Staff intends to keep a record of all comments to improve the outcome of Route 15’s bypass. The public is encouraged to provide further feedback during the October follow-up meeting.

Photo: Grace Bennett