Improve roads
Many south Chesapeake residents are concerned about the planned Coastal Virginia Commerce Park sited in southwest Chesapeake because of the harm it will do to the watershed and rural nature of the area. But a question needs to be asked, “How will people get to work there?”
U.S. 17 has the capacity, but it is ill-suited as a route for many Chesapeake residents. The bulk of the traffic will come by Johnstown and Benefit roads, which are inadequate for the traffic they already carry. Benefit Road is a series of difficult turns with large trees only feet from the roadway. Johnstown Road has shoulders under a foot wide next to deep ditches broken by deadly culverts. They are dangerous as they are, but as major commuter access, they will be death traps.
Before any further development in southern Chesapeake is considered, Johnstown Road must be wider with paved shoulders and subsurface drainage. And Benefit Road must be straighter with adequate setback for trees and other obstacles.
We can’t bring in that kind of traffic and hope the roads will be brought up to standards later. Before another subdivision is opened or an industrial park considered, the roads have to be made safe for the anticipated traffic. To do less is to pay in lives for the delay.
William Donald Tabor, Chesapeake
Address vehicles
As I drive, I’m shocked at the numerous vehicles I observe with expired state inspections and registrations. State inspections are required annually in Virginia; however, police officers may not pull over a vehicle for an expired inspection until four months past its expiration. Vehicle registration is required annually or every two years.
If these are the facts, why do I continue to see vehicles on the road with easily identifiable expired state inspections and registrations. The cost of a state inspection is $20, but I saw a vehicle behind me with a state inspection that’s more than 2 years old. What’s wrong with the vehicle that that person could not pay $20 for a state inspection? The Hampton Roads police departments need to step up their enforcement of these violations and remove unsafe vehicles from our roads.
Pat Martin, Virginia Beach
Pipeline
Re “With pipeline deal, Biden tarnishes his climate legacy” (Other Views, June 24): The recent bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act included important energy reforms, chief among them a push to finally get the Mountain Valley Pipeline up and running. While some have questioned MVP’s merits, this project will have significant benefits for Virginia.
Some facts to keep in mind: MVP, first proposed in 2014, is 94% complete, but has been stalled by legal obstacles erected by pipeline opponents. The 303-mile pipeline would bring natural gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia. This will help increase the energy security of the region, help ensure local communities have abundant American energy and replace more carbon-intensive generation.
According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Virginia used about seven times more natural gas than it produced in 2021. The majority of that natural gas was used for the power sector, with natural gas use for electricity generation almost tripling in the commonwealth since 2010. This shows a growing need for natural gas in the Old Dominion, which MVP can help supply.
President Joe Biden, Sen. Joe Manchin and all the policymakers who worked with them to support MVP should be commended for helping to ensure the region’s energy future. MVP has been a long time coming, and Virginia will benefit from this new flow of affordable, reliable American energy for decades to come.
David McGowan; southeast region director at the American Petroleum Institute; Raleigh, North Carolina
