On July 4, 2026, a single-vehicle crash on Sandbridge Road killed Wasif Shaikh of Lorton and shut down the only paved route in or out of the neighborhood for hours. There was no storm in the forecast. No wind pushing water over the banks of Back Bay. Just an ordinary holiday afternoon and a two-lane road with nowhere to pull over.
If you don’t live here, you’ve probably filed Sandbridge’s access problem under “hurricane risk” and moved on. That’s the story outsiders tell. It’s not the story the road tells. The bigger problem isn’t storm season. It’s a design that turns any incident, on any day, into a full closure.
The Road Has No Room for Error
Sandbridge Road runs about 5.4 miles, and the city’s own public works page describes it plainly: no breakdown lanes, no shoulders, ditches dropping off on both sides. There’s nowhere for a disabled car to go, so a fender bender doesn’t slow traffic. It stops it entirely, in both directions, for however long it takes to clear.
Sandbridge Beach Civic League President Elaine Fekete has watched this happen for three decades. She told 13News Now the road closes at least once a week, even in the winter.
“The road can be closed at least once a week, even in the winter.”
That single line does more to explain Sandbridge’s transportation problem than any flood map. Last March, downed wires and a transmitter fire closed the road for about an hour, no rain involved. These aren’t hurricane-season anomalies. They’re a Tuesday problem wearing a hurricane-season reputation.
The city’s numbers back this up on the flooding side too: roughly 60 percent of Sandbridge Road sits within the 100-year base flood elevation, which explains why water closes it during storms. But water is only one of the triggers. Crashes, downed poles, and stalled vehicles close it just as often, and those don’t check the calendar.
What Happens When It Closes
There is exactly one backup, and it isn’t really a public road. When Sandbridge Road is blocked, the only detour runs through Naval Air Station Oceana’s Dam Neck Annex, a restricted military installation that opens to civilian traffic only with Navy permission. NAS Oceana’s Executive Officer, Capt. Jeff Creighan, has said the Navy will keep allowing that controlled access when necessary, while also being direct that it isn’t a permanent solution.
For a rescue squad, “not a permanent solution” isn’t an abstraction. Fekete has said closures can delay access to hospitals and emergency services for the entire community. In May 2025, a crash into utility poles closed the road for roughly 20 hours, forcing police to run a manned detour through the base for that entire stretch. The same volunteer squad that has served Sandbridge for nearly 50 years, and that residents support every year at the community’s Pig Pickin’ fundraiser, has to route around its own neighborhood to reach the people who need it.
The Fix Finally Picked a Lane in January
After decades of studies that went nowhere, something concrete happened this year. On January 20, 2026, the City of Virginia Beach formally endorsed a Recommended Preferred Alternative for the long-stalled Nimmo Parkway Phase VII-B project: extend Nimmo Parkway roughly 1.9 miles from Albuquerque Drive in Lago Mar to Sandbridge Road near McClannan’s Curve, rather than trying to rebuild Sandbridge Road itself into something wider and higher.
The reasoning is worth sitting with, because it explains why this option is moving and past ones weren’t. Virginia Department of Transportation estimates presented to the Commonwealth Transportation Board found the Nimmo Parkway route would require zero residential relocations, compared with 12 homes under the Sandbridge Road alternative, and no commercial relocations versus two. It also follows land the city already owns. In a project that has died in committee for sixty years, the version that doesn’t force anyone out of their house is the version that finally cleared a vote.
The price tag has moved too, and it’s worth being honest about how much. In 2022, the city’s capital plan estimated the project at $45.5 million. By this year the number had grown to $54 million, with $20.5 million in state funding and $15 million from the federal government now identified. Costs went up. So did the level of political commitment behind actually finding the money.
The Clock That’s Actually Running
Here’s the part that rarely makes it into a headline: the federal review itself runs on a legal clock. The Federal Highway Administration published its notice of intent for the environmental impact statement on May 23, 2025, and federal rule gives agencies up to two years from that date to complete a final EIS. That puts the outside deadline for the federal document sometime in spring 2027, and only after that can permitting and construction actually begin. An earlier 2024 report on the project had construction penciled in for 2029. Nothing found in this year’s filings moves that date up, but nothing pushes it back either.
What has changed is the pressure applied to that clock. After the July 4 crash, Mayor Bobby Dyer wrote directly to Rep. Jen Kiggans and Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, asking them to help federal agencies move faster. “It’s got to the point now, like I said, enough is enough,” Dyer told 13News Now. “Let’s get this done, let’s get this fixed. It’s a matter of saving lives.” Kiggans responded that she shares the city’s concerns and plans to keep working with federal agencies on the review. Whether that translates into a faster timeline is still an open question, but it’s the first time in years that a fatal crash, rather than a storm, has been the thing that got a mayor writing to senators.
Here’s roughly how we got from an idea on a 1968 map to a preferred alignment picked in January:
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1967-68 | Route first identified as False Cape Parkway, added to city’s comprehensive plan |
| 1989-91 | City authorizes and completes right-of-way purchase |
| 2016 | Added to city’s Capital Improvements Program as Nimmo Parkway Phase VII-B |
| 2022 | Draft environmental assessment released, budget estimated at $45.5 million |
| May 2025 | Federal notice of intent published, starting the two-year EIS clock |
| Jan. 20, 2026 | City endorses Nimmo Parkway as Recommended Preferred Alternative |
| Later 2026 | Public hearing on Draft EIS still to come |
| ~Spring 2027 | Federal deadline for final EIS under current rule |
What This Means Heading Into Fall
Nothing about this changes your commute or your evacuation plan this month. Sandbridge Road is still the only way in, the ditches are still there, and the detour through Dam Neck Annex still depends on the Navy’s discretion rather than a standing right of access. If you haven’t already, it’s worth knowing that protocol before you need it rather than during a closure.
What has changed is the politics around fixing it. A road that spent sixty years losing funding fights to other priorities now has a City Council endorsement, an identified funding split between state and federal dollars, and a mayor who’s put his name on letters to two U.S. senators after a death that had nothing to do with the weather. The number that should stick with you isn’t the flood elevation. It’s the twelve houses that would have had to come down under the other option, and the zero that come down under the one the state actually picked. That’s usually the difference between a project that stays a study and one that eventually gets built.
If you’re weighing what a move to Sandbridge or anywhere else in Virginia Beach actually looks like day to day, from the roads you’ll drive to the neighborhoods that fit how you live, Darlene Gaines has spent years walking these streets with clients before, during, and long after closing. Schedule Your Red Carpet Consultation whenever you’re ready to talk through what a specific address, and a specific commute, would really mean for you.
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