There is no cost associated with the modeling work FAMPO is doing.

Robinson said he doubts that a more in-depth corridor study would cost $400,000.

Ross said he's fiscally conservative but believes converting the lane would be worth the $1 million price tag.

"As someone who drives this every day and seeing the 'fight' for traffic that has to merge left into the flow at each of the interchanges (which I feel slows the main traffic flow down) it's just an idea that I had from over six years of driving it daily," Ross said in an email.

He is part of a four-member majority of Spotsylvania supervisors who took office in January and promptly derailed the Rappahannock River Crossing project that was aimed at improving traffic on U.S. 17 in Stafford, Route 3 in Spotsylvania, as well as along the I-95 corridor in Fredericksburg.

The supervisors objected to the overall cost of the estimated $300 million project and to the four- to six-lane parkway included in the plans. The parkway, which would carry a toll, would run from the Virginia Welcome Center/rest area on I-95 and connect to Route 3 at Gordon Road.

Though the parkway portion of the plan has been shelved, the other phases of it--U.S. 17 interchange improvements and feeder roads along I-95--are still in the works.

The project has since lost most of the nearly $15 million set aside for preliminary engineering and studies.

Scott Shenk: 540/374-5436
Email: sshenk@freelancestar.com