Engineering properties of selected soils in the Virginia Piedmont

The Piedmont Province i Virginia, running in a north-south direction, is approximately 50 miles wide along the Maryland border I ard broadens to the south until it encompasses approximately 150 miles along the North Carolina border. It cor prises at least one-third of the land area of the stat , with approximately 60% occupied by woodland and 40% by agriculture, primarily beef or dairy enterprises.

Located in the Piedmont j:e the cities of Leesburg, Fairfax, Manassas, Warrenton, Culpeper, Charlottesville, Lynchburg , Bedford, Farmville, Martinsville, Danville and South Boston. I an McHargue, in his book Design With Nature, studied the Potomac River watershed and concluded that "the Piedmont is primaril suitable for urbanization with attendant agriculture and undifferentiated recreation" (McHargue 1969).

Because of the development potential of the Piedmont and the intense pressures for future urbanization west of Washington, D.C., in the counties of Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun; around Richmond in the counties of Hanover, Hen ico, Goochland, Powhatan, Amelia and Chesterfield; an in Albemarle, Amherst, Bedford, Campbell, Franklin, Henry and Pittsylvania counties, the need to intensively study the most widely distributed and potentially important Piedmont soils became apparent....