Fairfax County has recast plans to expand Route 1, reducing the number of lanes for cars in order to allow for two lanes for public transportation — despite the fact that there are no plans to continue those lanes once the highway crosses the border into Prince William County.
Fairfax officials have also not had discussions with Prince William officials about what motorists are to do when two lanes disappear on their way south.
“It is positive to plan for transit in the Route 1 corridor, but obviously it has to be linked up with transit in Prince William for it really to be effective, and we have not had those discussions,” said Sean Connaughton, Prince William Board of County Supervisors chair. Connaughton pointed out that it took 10 years to decide that Route 1 would be six lanes wide.
The county’s Planning Commission hosted a public hearing Thursday regarding proposed changes in the transportation plan. The plan includes reducing Route 1 from the planned eight lanes to six from the Beltway to Mount Vernon Highway and from six lanes to four from the highway to Fort Belvoir. Instead, a lane for bus rapid transit or Metro is identified.
“We recognized some time ago that the redevelopment of the Richmond Highway corridor is not pegged to ever-widening pavement, just shy of adding landing lights, but that folks have long felt the need for — and BRAC [the Base Closure and Realignment Commission] makes it viable — is to extend light rail or similar transit services down this historic and economically viable corridor,” said Supervisor Dana Kauffman, D-Lee.
The base commission recommended that some 25,000 government workers be transferred to the base in southeastern Fairfax last summer. Several thousand employees of defense contractors are expected to follow.
Kauffman added that having the plans on the table will assist the county in receiving federal funding “when and if federal dollars get put on the table.”
Prince William County and the Virginia Department of Transportation have been in the process of widening Route 1 to six lanes.
Connaughton and Kauffman agreed that the majority of Fort Belvoir’s current and future employees live south of Fairfax and the issue deserves attention.
As more information on Defense Department relocations is revealed, more study and planning will occur, said Leonard Wolfenstein, a Fairfax transportation planner.
Changes to Fairfax Transportation Plan
» HOV lanes on Route 28 and Fairfax County Parkway
» HOT lanes on Interstates 95, 395 and 495
» Widen lanes within the Mixing Bowl and Fairfax County Parkway
» Create overpass at Route 236 and Annandale Road
» Metrorail designation on I-66
» Supervisors to hold public hearing in June
» www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/transplanupdate.htm
