Route 15 Improvement Projects: The Lucketts Bypass

With the county’s stated goal of improving safety and decreasing congestion, a number of road improvement projects are in process along the corridor of Route 15 North. One of these improvements, the Lucketts bypass, is expected to directly impact JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary. Loudoun Wildlife is staying closely involved with this process to do everything possible to prevent the construction of a roadway through the globally rare habitat at JK Black Oak.

Vernal pools are found throughout JK Black Oak.
Photo by Gerco Hoogeweg

At the Board of Supervisors July 5, 2022 business meeting, the Supervisors approved a Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM) to widen Route 15 from north of Montressor Road to the Maryland state line. One of the phases of these improvements is the construction of a bypass around the Village of Lucketts. In response to initial advocacy efforts, county staff prioritized a recommendation to the Board to avoid impacts to JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary. However, at the meeting, an unexpected motion was made which resulted in a directive from the Board that the design study to determine the routes for the bypass only consider options to the west of the village of Lucketts where the Sanctuary is located.

In March 2020, Loudoun Wildlife purchased the 89-acre globally rare wetland now known as JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary, which is held under conservation easement. As of mid-April 2025, the potential paths that the bypass could take are still being refined. However, the county has confirmed that the 2022 directive from the Board means that the design study area will include route alternatives that go through JK Black Oak.

Since the Board’s decision to only consider a western bypass, ongoing monitoring projects continue to yield new information (including the discovery of a federally endangered bat species) that support the need to protect the sanctuary’s unique ecosystem. Loudoun Wildlife has also invested significant time and money in habitat restoration projects that would be adversely affected. We continue to work closely with our partners at The Nature Conservancy and Land Trust of Virginia to communicate with the county and the project’s design contractor the challenges that will come from route options on our property. We and our partner organizations have serious concerns about how this roadway could impact the unstable underlying karst topography, as well as the wetlands mitigation project if routed through the property.

All wildlife would be severely impacted by a road going through the Sanctuary
Photo by Jenny Erickson.

Despite the Board of Supervisors CPAM decision, your voice is still needed to speak up to protect the flora and fauna that are at a high risk of local extinction at JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary. The conservation easement on the property and the wetland mitigation project pose challenges to implementing a route option impacting the property. However, even these potential barriers are not enough to protect the Sanctuary from a road project; it is still of the utmost importance that public opposition to this project is sustained, especially for route options that cut through the property itself.

The timeline of this project has probably been expedited and could be impacted by the county’s upcoming review of the Countywide Transportation Plan. As of mid-April 2025, it is expected that the county and design contractor will release the route alternatives they have decided upon and begin soliciting public input on them in late spring of 2025. Loudoun Wildlife will continue to monitor the progress on the Route 15 N bypass project, and we will post updates as soon as opportunities for public input become available.

Since the Board will still be required to vote to approve a route alternative once they have been determined, you can email your Supervisor to tell them to avoid impacts to JK Black Oak when the item comes before them (expected Winter 2026). Keeping pressure on the Board is important, so it’s not too early to let them know that we’re still here fighting for the wildlife that call JK Black Oak their home.

We want to thank the members of the public who spoke up and overwhelmingly responded to protect JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary during a survey in June 2021.

Additional information on the Route 15 widening: