WOODBRIDGE, Va. — No traffic fix on I-95? No Washington Commanders stadium in Northern Virginia.
That’s the latest line in the sand as stadium talk in the Virginia Legislature heats back up.
“The biggest driver of this is literally going to be traffic and transportation,” said State Senator Jeremy McPike (D) who represents parts of Prince William County, where the Commanders have studied two potential stadium sites. “And that should be incorporated in the study.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently revived talk of the Commanders moving to Northern Virginia with a proposal to spend $500,000 to study potential economic incentives for the team to relocate to Virginia. But McPike is proposing an amendment that would require the state to fund and fix traffic congestion within 25 miles of a proposed stadium site before a new Commanders stadium could open.
The state senator said a Virginia study found the southbound section of 95 near the Occoquan River at the Woodbridge exit had the highest per person hours of traffic delays in the state, with more than 1.2 million hours annually.
“I think I've been consistent all along that any stadium has to be dealing with traffic and transportation,” McPike said. “In fact, I'm pinpointing and highlighting that and helping the constituents that I serve, because we face the traffic and transportation of the worst area in on the East Coast, every single day. And so, this is an opportunity to hopefully highlight this either with or without a stadium. This has got to be fixed.”
Yougnkin's proposed budget and McPike’s stadium traffic study amendment will be considered by the state legislature in early February.