(The Center Square) – A $47.7 million bridge replacement project funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia is facing resistance from local officials and conservation groups, who say the plan could threaten a centuries-old mill and surrounding protected land.
The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to fully replace both spans of the I-66 bridge over Broad Run in Fauquier County and widen the structure to include expanded shoulders. State officials say the project is necessary to improve safety and address fatigue in the existing bridge’s substructure.
However, the revised design marks a shift from VDOT’s original 2023 plan, which called for a more limited superstructure repair within the existing footprint. The updated proposal, released in early 2025, would widen the bridge by roughly 60 feet in front of the Chapman-Beverley Mill—a historic 18th-century stone mill listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1742 by John Chapman and his sons, the Chapman-Beverley Mill is the tallest stacked stone building in the country. The structure served as a vital grain mill through five wars and was a key hub of agricultural and industrial activity throughout the 19th century.
The mill sits within the Broad Run–Little Georgetown Rural Historic District and near the Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve. Both the Piedmont Environmental Council and the Bull Run Mountains Conservancy have voiced concerns that heavier construction could damage the site’s foundation, increase erosion and open the door to future development in a sensitive corridor.
“You have to balance that public need against the public resource that’s there that we’re trying to protect, and we think that’s the best way forward,” said John McCarthy, senior advisor at the Piedmont Environmental Council. He said the current plan replaces a bridge that could have been repaired with a much larger structure that adds cost, complexity and long-term impacts to the historic corridor.
VDOT has said the project will not require additional land and concluded in a January letter to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources that the work would have “no adverse effect” on the historic setting. A federal Section 106 review ended with DHR concurring with that determination.
Still, the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in March calling on VDOT to hold a public hearing before finalizing the design. That hearing is scheduled for May 29 in Marshall, and written public comments will be accepted until June 9.
According to VDOT’s Six-Year Improvement Program, the project is now expected to cost $47.7 million, including $44.9 million in construction and $2.76 million in engineering.
The project was originally estimated at around $26 million when scoped as a more limited repair in 2023.
