VIRGINIA BEACH — Sandbridge Road, a two-lane winding thoroughfare with ditches on each side, is the only way to Sandbridge Beach. Every time it has closed over the years — for a wreck or a flood or a downed power line — thousands of residents and visitors have had no way in or out.
Emergency vehicles can access the area through Naval Air Station Oceana Dam Neck Annex. Residents can as well under certain circumstances, but that requires a surge of naval security and Virginia Beach police officers to control the route.
A push to build a new road to Sandbridge is nothing new, but it’s gaining momentum again following two recent accidents that shut down the road. City and Navy officials are urging an expedited environmental review of alternative route.
“It’s a safety concern,” said Elaine Fekete, president of the Sandbridge Beach Civic League. She’s lived in Sandbridge since 1995 and says road closures have increased in recent years.
A new road
A reliable alternative would slice through the northern part of Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, which concerns environmental groups about potential effects on birds and other animals.
The project would extend Nimmo Parkway 1.9 miles between Albuquerque Drive in the Lago Mar neighborhood to an improved section of Sandbridge Road via a city-owned right-of-way. A 800-foot bridge would be built over Ashville Bridge Creek in the refuge. Nimmo Parkway Phase VII-B would include a two-lane undivided roadway with shoulders, bike lanes and a shared-use path.
Extending Nimmo Parkway would have minimal effects on private property, requiring no business or residential relocations, according to the city and the Virginia Department of Transportation. It also has fewer impacts to wetlands and streams than redesigning roughly 3.4 miles of Sandbridge Road, which is bordered by homes, businesses, cemeteries, a church and the refuge.
The extension would tie into a recently improved 1-mile section of the east end of Sandbridge Road, which was completed last fall. Those improvements included straightening and elevating the road as well as adding 12-foot-wide travel lanes, new on-road bike lanes, a 10-foot-wide shared-use path, a widened shoulder, new reflective pavement markings, LED street lighting and pedestrian lighting.
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