With two major transportation projects threatening to worsen Tysons Corner’s already abysmal traffic congestion, Fairfax County supervisors question whether the state has adequately planned for the convergence.
The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, which will run about four of its total 23 miles of new track through Tysons, and the Capital Beltway High Occupancy Toll Lanes project, which will add three new ramps to the area, are set to get under way at roughly the same time. While each of these projects could reduce congestion after their completion, local officials fret over how much they’ll add to bottlenecks during construction.
The Fairfax County Board, at its meeting Monday, attacked the commonwealth for “the apparent lack of preparation” on reducing traffic caused by the two projects, an assertion that state officials dispute.
Fairfax officials also decry a lack of funding set aside for such planning efforts.
“Tysons is our economic engine, and we cannot allow this lack of planning to continue,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly said.
Virginia transportation officials, however, say they’re gearing up for a regionwide study that would include the impact of both projects and a handful of others, including a separate HOT lanes venture on Interstates 95 and 395 and the I-95 widening.
“We’ve got these mega-projects that add up to nearly 100 miles of roadway, far more than half a million vehicles a day will be affected, and we’re talking about construction for about the next seven years,” Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Joan Morris said. “It just makes sense to not be thinking project by project, but looking at one big transportation management plan that would make sure that we keep the traffic moving, keep commuters moving to and from work throughout those six or seven years.”
While the cost of such a planning effort is unclear, VDOT Northern Virginia District Administrator Dennis Morrison put the price at as much as $100 million.
He said the study can’t begin until the details of the projects are completed, however.
Both the HOT lanes proposal and rail-to-Dulles are public-private partnerships and remain in the planning stages.
Connolly also complained that they hadn’t been invited to congestion management meetings for either of the projects. Fairfax County staff members, however, have been briefed in recent months on the traffic plan for Dulles rail.
