Tag: Prince William BOCS

Over the past decade, Fairfax County and other Virginia localities have actively used VDOT’s scheduled roadway resurfacing program to cost-effectively reconfigure scores of roadways to improve safe access for people walking and bicycling.

Question 5:  Do you support directing the PWC Department of Transportation to actively engage with VDOT’s annual roadway repaving program to cost-effectively reallocate existing roadway space to better serve pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and motorists?*

The proposed Route 28 Bypass (Godwin Drive Extension) along the Flat Branch and Bull Run floodplains would remove more than 50 affordable housing units in a designated Equity Emphasis Area, establish a permanent freeway barrier between the West Gate/Sudley and Loch Lomond communities, foster more exurban sprawl and long-distance drive-alone commuting from west and south of Prince William County, and increase traffic congestion and delays along Centreville Road in Fairfax County.  Moreover, due to inflation since 2019, the roughly $300 million already earmarked for this project (including $200 million from the County’s 2019 transportation bond referendum that PWC taxpayers would then repay over perhaps two decades) may not cover all construction costs. 

Meanwhile, both our organization and the Prince William County Trails and Blueways Council have formally commented that the recently proposed shared-use path component of this highway project is substantially inadequate.

Question 6a:  Do you agree than any Route 28 Bypass should include a robust shared-use path component–both along and across the Flat Branch stream valley and with multiple connections to the adjacent neighborhoods—as recommended by both the Trails and Blueways Council and Active Prince William?*

Question 6b, also related to the proposed Route 28 Bypass:  Would you support asking the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA) to grant immediate public access to UOSA’s existing service road along this corridor as a key component of a shared-path network along and across the Flat Branch stream valley?*

Question 6c, also related to the proposed Route 28 Bypass:   When this highway project’s design, costs, and myriad impacts are more fully known in spring 2024, would you support the Board of County Supervisors objectively reevaluating the pros and cons of this controversial project and considering significant modifications or even a partial or full cancellation?*

*** On October 10, 2023, the BOCS authorized pursuing a potential alternative alignment (“Modified Alternative 2A”) that would not cross Bull Run into Fairfax County, because Alternative 2B, which was advanced for preliminary engineering in September 2020, may not be feasible for various reasons (cost, project impacts, and/or right-of-way acquisition issues).  Besides displacing additional affordable dwelling units, Modified Alternative 2A would create a substantial new bottleneck on Centreville Road in Yorkshire, necessitating an additional bridge and road-widening project in both Fairfax and Prince William Counties. ***

[As examples, substantial project changes might include 1) use automated tolling to both finance construction (in lieu of County bonds) and manage transportation demand and/or 2) construct the project segment across and north of Bull Run with the existing NVTA funds and separately expand Old Centreville Rd (possibly as part of an extended multi-locality, multi-modal transit-oriented-development corridor)–in lieu of extending Godwin Dr–to reduce net residential displacements and preserve the Flat Branch stream valley as valuable and much-needed regional parkland.]