The study, to be completed by the Virginia Department of Transportation, will examine 219 miles of U.S. 29 from Danville on the North Carolina border to Gainesville near Interstate 66.

Business advocates in Lynchburg and Danville are calling for the ouster of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization, citing the agency’s reluctance to move forward with a $300 million bypass around Charlottesville’s heavily traveled portion of U.S. 29.

U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, said on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with a 2003 art house film that depicts gay sex, violent beatings and drug use.

The No. 1 transportation priority of the business communities in Danville and Lynchburg is a 5.5-mile bypass around Charlottesville’s heavily traveled stretch of U.S. 29.