Regional Boards > Mid-Atlantic
Road improvements in Prince William County, Virginia
Joseph R P:
Prince William County, a suburban county south of the Washington Metropolitan Area, is going to be receiving a lot of new major road improvements in the coming years, including new interchanges and intersection improvements along Prince William Parkway (VA 234/294) and miscellaneous improvements to I-95, such as a new southbound auxiliary lane to hopefully speed up the nightly slowdown across the Occoquan River as well as new southbound HOT lane ramps at Opitz Boulevard to provide better access to a new PRTC commuter garage.
The most notable of these upcoming changes just recently broke ground in March. This is the new complex interchange for Prince William Parkway, Dumfries Road, and Brentsville Road, also simply known as the Brentsville Interchange project. Currently, there are two signalized interchanges, met at by four different highways: VA 234, VA 234 BUS, VA 294, and SR 649. With all these high-traffic commuter routes, most of them high-speed, meeting at two close-together signalized intersections, this is a very accident-prone area and is unsafe to other cross-traffic, pedestrians, and cyclists. Here is what it currently looks like:
Initially, VDOT considered using a double diamond interchange, like the ones seen along Fairfax County Parkway, which would have the road alignment look similar to this:
Instead, they came up with a half-interchange, half-intersection design, which looked like this:
The intersection, which would be a 4-way intersection paired with a half-trumpet ramp connection between VA 234 South and VA 294, was replaced with a fully grade-separated interchange design, retaining the half-trumpet but adding more ramps and replacing the intersection with an overpass:
For a second time, they once again redesigned the proposed interchange, with the final product going to be the second interchange design, just more condensed:
This is just one of the new highway projects along Prince William Parkway. The diverging diamond interchange at Balls Ford Road is about halfway complete, and there are several other proposed projects too, including a single-point urban interchange at Sudley Manor Road (which includes an overpass for Wellington Road), a quadrant intersection at University Boulevard which will extend Discover Boulevard to PWP, a dumbbell intersection at Clover Hill Road, which uses roundabout to make left turns between the intersecting roads, and a single-point urban interchange at Minnieville Road to go along with the new Quartz District mixed-use neighborhood development project.
To give my opinion, I'm hoping that VA 234 around Manassas is fully-upgraded to a freeway rather than having its at-grade intersections improved. This road gets backed up for miles and has constant collisions due to the signalized intersections and investing in SPUIs for University Boulevard and Clover Hill Road sounds better in my opinion, but it seems this all has to do with costs. Maybe for another time in the future.
All that aside, I'm interested to see how this new interchange will turn out, and perhaps these new road projects, particularly the ones around Manassas, open a window for more frequent bus service between Manassas and the Dumfries/Woodbridge area, as well as an extended shared-use path along VA 234, both offering easier commutes for people who don't own cars.
What do you all think of the new interchange (and other projects)?
bluecountry:
Do you work for PWC?
I read that intersection had complaints about the interchange being woefully inadequate for cyclists and pedestrians, has that been corrected?
kernals12:
Virginia is getting closer and closer to having an Outer Beltway. If nothing else, I imagine this could draw traffic off of 95 north of Dumfries.
Mapmikey:
--- Quote from: kernals12 on June 08, 2022, 07:58:44 PM ---Virginia is getting closer and closer to having an Outer Beltway. If nothing else, I imagine this could draw traffic off of 95 north of Dumfries.
--- End quote ---
To go where? Making the Manassas Bypass a few minutes faster than it currently is would draw additional I-95 NB traffic how?
Envisioning VA 234 as the outer beltway is a stretch. There are at least 13 stop lights between I-95 and the VA 294/SR 649 interchange location. Also numerous other at grade intersections.
bluecountry:
If I knew how to I would create a map in google kmz/mnl that showed my proposal for the outer beltway going clockwise:
-'ICC extension' from the current ICC terminus at I-95 in Laurel to Rt 50, 6 lanes
-'Brandywine bypass' from Rt 50 to Rt 301 by Brandywine, 4 lanes
-'Potomac expressway' from Brandy in an arc to the Potomac straight across from the southern end of Quantico MB, 4 lanes until at the new bridge, which is 6 lanes
-'Quantico expressway' from the Potomac along the perimeter of the Quantico MB, up to PW PKWY, 4 lanes
-'PW expressway' where the PW Pkwy would be upgraded to a full interstate with 6 to 8 lanes to I-66
-'Bi County expressway' from PW Pkwy and I-66 going north but more on the tai-county NOT bi county route to intersect with 50 and Rt 606 in Loudoun, 4 lanes
-'Dulles Expressway' from Rt 50 on Rt 606 crossing the Greenway with a new west exit to Dulles Airport and then going straight north over the Loudoun County Parkway to Rt 7, 6 lanes
-'Techway' from Rt 7 across to the ICC, 6 lanes until over the Potomac Bridge, then 4 lanes
All segments tolled except for the PW Expressway.
Minimal exits to prevent sprawl and keep this as intended-a bypass for 95 to Baltimore/NY traffic, 95 to Dulles/PA Turnpike traffic
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version