One road with sharp bends through dense trees and no shoulders connects the Sandbridge community with the rest of Virginia Beach.
A car accident in May, however, blocked Sandbridge Road for 18 hours, reinvigorating city leaders’ desire for another route into the community.
“No one could get in and out of Sandbridge during that time,” said Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson.
A project called Nimmo Parkway Phase VII-B would extend the parkway by about 1½ miles through the wooded area and over Asheville Bridge Creek. Plans for the two-lane road include a bike path, shoulders and parallel walking path. It’s been held up for years by environmental red tape.
The project first appeared in the 1990 Capital Improvement Plan, but funding was transferred to another project. It was reintroduced in the 2015 CIP. Permitting for Phase VII-B began in 2018, but has been on pause for nearly three years, according to the Federal Infrastructure Projects Permitting Dashboard.
The project has nearly $54 million allocated to it in the current CIP, a combination of local, state and federal funding.
Wilson explained that the city completed a required Environmental Assessment, which was approved in 2022. Then the Federal Highway Administration and the Department of Fish and Wildlife required the city to complete an Environmental Impact Study. The project has stalled since then.
“They've delayed it again, and besides the study costing millions of dollars, every time you delay a road project, the cost goes up,” Wilson said. “So we had it fully funded. I don’t know if it would be fully funded today.”
According to the FHA, the project could impact wetlands, wildlife and encroach on floodplains. Moreover, tree removal could impact the federally endangered Northern Long-eared bat and the proposed endangered Tricolored bat.
A notice of intent issued by the FHA last month estimates an Environmental Impact Study would be complete by May 2027. The public can comment on the notice in a survey that's open through June 23.
In the summer months, Sandbridge Road experiences heavy traffic from beachgoers and birdwatchers heading to the picturesque, sandy shores off the beaten track or the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Sandbridge Realty rents out gargantuan vacation houses. And year-round, residents and business owners rely on the road to travel between home and the rest of the city.
It winds about 3 miles from the beach before it hits another intersection.
“It does affect tourism,” said Wilson, which is why she brought it up recently during a forum on tourism with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner.
More than that, though, “It’s a health and safety issue, it affects national security, it’s a cost to taxpayers,” she said.
In an emergency, the U.S. Navy can open up roads through Dam Neck Fleet Training Center that connect to Dam Neck Road, but Wilson said that can take hours to coordinate. Navy personnel have to line the roads to keep the base secure. There’s also no guarantee that the Navy would agree to open the roads in any given circumstance — even during an emergency, she said.
At a City Council meeting in May, leaders agreed to put pressure on federal representatives to allow the city to move ahead with the project.
“I think the plans that we have are more than sensitive to fish and wildlife,” said Mayor Bobby Dyer at the meeting. “But when push comes to shove, the safety of human beings and residents in Sandbridge are the priority.”
