Chamber Insider Blog

Eye on Loudoun: Our County, Our Future Part 2

Post by Government Relations Manager, Eric C. Johnson
View more posts by Eric, here

I touched on the importance of housing as an economic factor in my last blog post. In addition to more housing, Loudoun County needs better roads. The County must provide adequate investment in vital assets to help the business community continue to grow and prosper. Loudoun lacks functional connections to healthy markets such as Maryland and Prince William County. A new Potomac River bridge crossing in addition to building the Bi-County Parkway would make it easier for Loudoun business owners to reach new customers and employees who weren’t accessible before.

Something also must be done about the daily gridlock on Route 15 and Route 9 in the morning and afternoon. The traffic not only makes it harder to recruit and retain good employees, it is really hurting two important historic areas, Lucketts and Hillsboro.

Of course, our east/west infrastructure is in need of upgrades to meet the needs of the growing workforce, and some solid Greenway alternatives would be a huge help.

While we all can tell horror stories of how long it takes us to get anywhere on our major roads, businesses that have fleets such as plumbers, delivery companies, and other service based corporations that drive to their customers, are losing business because they simply cannot make it to the job site in a timely manner.  I recently sat in on a meeting where a local business owner explained to the group how she had cut back on service calls to Stafford and Prince William because the time on the roads for her crews makes it impossible to competitively bid on jobs. 

We need roads that increase business opportunities, not eliminate them.

You can help us in this effort by attending one of the Envision Loudoun sessions in June and speaking up for better transportation in Loudoun! See you there!