Vulcan Materials asked Prince William County to defer its Nokesville quarry proposal to look at “alternatives” to traffic and operational issues raised by county employees and residents.
The proposed quarry would sit on some 530 acres on Route 28 near the Fauquier County line. In the past, Vulcan agreed to give the county $2 million toward widening Route 28, a more than $80 million project.
Some 15,000 vehicles travel between the county line and Fitzwater Drive, said Ryan Hall, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman. Trucks make up 5 percent of that traffic, he said. The quarry would add a total of 1,400 vehicles to the current two-lane road, said Paul Miklich, Vulcan’s Northern Virginia area sales manager.
“When the Manassas quarry closes, the stone that Prince William buys is going to come from somewhere. … Traffic is going to come whether we put a quarry in Nokesville or not,” said Miklich, who said the deferral could last for months.
“It seems like we are holding the citizens hostage if we keep deferring it,” said Supervisor Wally Covington, R-Brentsville.
The quarry application was deferred several times before it came before the planning commission. Both county staff and the commission have denied the application.
“It doesn’t make sense to have this application deferred if there are no substantive changes on it. They wasted the time of the citizens,” said Michael Shanley, Nokesville Civic Association president.
“My impression is this deferral is the first step towards an eventual withdrawal if an alternative site can be found,” said Sean Connaughton, Prince William County Board of Supervisors chair.
