3 Major Northern Virginia parkways (*NOT* NPS) now primary routes.

[1995hoo]

According to Josh Doe at OSM, SR 286 is now posted, at least between Burke Centre and Braddock.

I'll keep my eyes peeled when I go out today–I need to go to Newington and so I may take a different route just to confirm that unless the gas gauge is reading too low. In the past week I've used the Franconia—Springfield Parkway several times in both directions and it was still signed as 7900.

(edited for typo on the route number)

[1995hoo]

According to Josh Doe at OSM, SR 286 is now posted, at least between Burke Centre and Braddock.

I'll keep my eyes peeled when I go out today–I need to go to Newington and so I may take a different route just to confirm that unless the gas gauge is reading too low. In the past week I've used the Franconia—Springfield Parkway several times in both directions and it was still signed as 7900.

(edited for typo on the route number)

Wound up not being able to go as far west as Burke. The Franconia—Springfield Parkway and the new segment of the Fairfax County Parkway between Rolling Road and Newington are both still signed as 7900 and 7100, respectively, as of this morning. What was amusing to me, though, is that the new segment has some brand-new overhead BGSs that have been installed this week (because they weren't there when I went to Newington last Friday afternoon) and they all bear the 7100 number in the round circle. There are a couple of others awaiting installation that are sitting in a grassy area near one of the on-ramps from Rolling/Barta Roads. I suppose this is probably a situation where the signs were already ordered and paid for prior to the numbering becoming official, and the installation times were presumably already scheduled, but I found it amusing because you'd think that if they're going to have to go out and stick new numbers on a bunch of signs it would be logical to start with the new signs that hadn't already been hoisted, or else to alter those signs when you're already up there hoisting them into place.

[cpzilliacus]

Wound up not being able to go as far west as Burke. The Franconia—Springfield Parkway and the new segment of the Fairfax County Parkway between Rolling Road and Newington are both still signed as 7900 and 7100, respectively, as of this morning. What was amusing to me, though, is that the new segment has some brand-new overhead BGSs that have been installed this week (because they weren't there when I went to Newington last Friday afternoon) and they all bear the 7100 number in the round circle.

I was down that way this week (south of Va. 289 ... oops, Va. 7900) and saw no indication of any new Va. 286 signage.

[davest123]

I notied the new 286 signs on the Parkway heading South between 66 and Braddock Road Wednesday morning. They are also posted at the intersection of Braddock Road and the Parkway. However, the BGSs mounted to the Parkway bridge on Braddock Road still have 7100.

[froggie]

What was amusing to me, though, is that the new segment has some brand-new overhead BGSs that have been installed this week (because they weren't there when I went to Newington last Friday afternoon) and they all bear the 7100 number in the round circle.

The signs were probably fabricated before the route changeover was approved.  It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to slap a patch shield over an existing guide sign than it is to ditch an otherwise brand-new sign and start over.

[1995hoo]

What was amusing to me, though, is that the new segment has some brand-new overhead BGSs that have been installed this week (because they weren't there when I went to Newington last Friday afternoon) and they all bear the 7100 number in the round circle.

The signs were probably fabricated before the route changeover was approved.  It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to slap a patch shield over an existing guide sign than it is to ditch an otherwise brand-new sign and start over.

Yeah, you may have noticed I went on to suggest precisely that, although as I also said it would seem that if you're going to use patch shields–which I presume they are on other signs–it seems logical you'd start with the new signs simply under the theory that it makes more sense to do a single install rather than to hoist them and then climb back up again to patch them.

[cpzilliacus]

I notied the new 286 signs on the Parkway heading South between 66 and Braddock Road Wednesday morning. They are also posted at the intersection of Braddock Road and the Parkway. However, the BGSs mounted to the Parkway bridge on Braddock Road still have 7100.

At least that's some progress. While Va. 7100 (and the Fairfax County  Parkway) are not especially old as roads around Northern Virginia go, that 7100 route number is extremely ingrained with a large part of our driving population. 

Traffic reports (and I mean "serious" traffic reports on WTOP and WNEW Radio and un-serious reports on many other stations in the region) all use 7100 as a prominent reference point for  reporting congestion and other problems along radials like U.S. 1, I-95, U.S. 29, I-66, Va. 267 and Va. 7 (and probably some others). 

With that in mind, I really hope that VDOT will retain, at least for a while, some "OLD 7100" trailblazers and reassurance markers.

[1995hoo]

I actually heard a traffic reporter (Reena (sp?) Kessler on WTOP) say "Fairfax County Parkway" either this morning or yesterday afternoon and I was rather surprised to hear it because the traffic reporters have almost always said "7100" instead.

[cpzilliacus]

I actually heard a traffic reporter (Reena (sp?) Kessler on WTOP) say "Fairfax County Parkway" either this morning or yesterday afternoon and I was rather surprised to hear it because the traffic reporters have almost always said "7100" instead.

Within a week of hearing about the Commonwealth Transportation Board's decision to move the three parkways to the primary system, I spoke with  WTOP's Bob Marbourg, and he said he would alert the traffic reporting staff there to the impending change.  I have not asked him recently, but it is possible that they are calling it the Fairfax County Parkway instead of 7100 because of the impending route number change, even though it takes longer to use the name instead of the route number.

[froggie]

I've heard WTOP occasionally use "Fairfax County Pkwy" over the years. It's not common, but it's NOT unique to the past few months.

[1995hoo]

Dr. Gridlock's column in yesterday's paper mentioned the renumbering and someone asked about it in his online discussion today as well. So I guess the general public are starting to notice the re-signed number.

WTOP's Kessler used the road's name this morning as well. Come to think of it, during the renumbering it seems very logical to refrain from using a number due to the potential for ambiguity or confusion when people hear one number and see another on the sign.

[cpzilliacus]

Dr. Gridlock's column in yesterday's paper mentioned the renumbering and someone asked about it in his online discussion today as well. So I guess the general public are starting to notice the re-signed number.

WTOP's Kessler used the road's name this morning as well. Come to think of it, during the renumbering it seems very logical to refrain from using a number due to the potential for ambiguity or confusion when people hear one number and see another on the sign.

Saw VDOT's contractors putting up Va. 286 shields near Fox Mill Road yesterday.  But the BGSs on Va. 267 (Dulles Toll Road) had not been touched.

[1995hoo]

Saw this at 12:21 this afternoon on Fullerton Road just north of Boudinot Drive. I was heading to the bank off Rolling Road. On the way back I used the Parkway and I noted that none of the BGSs have been touched, but the reassurance shields along the Parkway–at least from the Barta Road interchange to the I-95 interchange, anyway–were all brand-new VA-286 shields.

The Franconia—Springfield Parkway signs all still said 7900.

I can't be bothered to look up whether there's any kind of standard for the posting of the old route number. I remember when I-95 in Virginia became I-395, VDOT posted I-95 shields with a blue cardinal direction sign that said "OLD" instead of bearing a direction. I suppose the same thing could be done in this instance (adapting the colors appropriately, of course), but I kind of liked the black-on-yellow sign because it caught my eye. Indeed that sign was one of the main reasons I noticed this VA-286 shield in the first place–I drive through there often enough that I tend not to notice signs, and the lane pattern is screwed up enough that I'm usually more focused on noticing whether the driver in the lane to my right is going to fail to note that he's in a right-turn-only lane and instead go straight across into the lane I want to use. (In the direction I'm going in this picture there are two right-only lanes to the Parkway, a straight-only lane for Fullerton, and a left-only lane onto Boudinot, but on the far side Fullerton has two lanes.)

Funny, I didn't need to go down there to go to the bank (the one on Loisdale Road is closer), but since it's such a nice day I just wanted to put the top down and drive a bit further, and it got me my first VA-286 sighting.

[Mapmikey]

VA 289 is now signed in at least one place as of 5:30 this morning...

There is a 289 shield patch on the BGS NB I-95 HOV at the exit ramp for the route.  There was no OLD 7900 marking of any sort.

The LGS at the top of that ramp was still posted as SR 7900.

Mapmikey

[NE2]

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/925418.html

"VDOT was erecting a big-ass sign on the parkway heading north just after Burke Centre Parkway. It says Fairfax County Parkway: Now 286, Old 7100."


Also from that thread:

[Takumi]

I take it nobody's seen any 294 shields yet.

[Mapmikey]

Nobody has reported any to me and none are on I-95 which is where I would see one.

I may be going to Manassas this weekend where I would have an opportunity to see another part of the PW Pkwy


Mapmikey

[Mapmikey]

Heading home this afternoon I spotted BGS's in the SB I-95 HOV of VA 286 and VA 289.

Further down on I-95 there was also an OLD 3000 sign near the PW Pkwy but no corresponding VA 294 sign was present

not the greatest picture but all I had with me was my Blackberry...



Mapmikey

[1995hoo]

I take it nobody's seen any 294 shields yet.

I'm guaranteed not to until at least July 1. My wife and I are on vacation in Florida.

I do like the idea of a green sign (need not be big) advising of the number change. I vaguely recall Connecticut did something similar where I-84 became I-86 during the era when the number changed.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I may try to head up there sometime in the next couple weeks. Can't make any promises though.

[NJRoadfan]

The Parkways have been mostly signed with their new designations on I-95, at least southbound. The Exit 166A for the Fairfax Parkway still has a 7100 shield posted with the "old 7100" tacked on.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Reading that Fairfax Underground link made my brain hurt. I thought Chesterfield County's NIMBYs were bad. In any case, the image linked up above does not work.

[Takumi]

"Why didn't they make it Primary Route 7100? How hard would that have been?"

[NE2]

"Why didn't they make it Primary Route 7100? How hard would that have been?"

Why didn't they? They have primary route 895...

[cpzilliacus]

"Why didn't they make it Primary Route 7100? How hard would that have been?"

That would be (in my opinion) an unpardonable offense.

Yes, I know about Va. 895 (and I-664), but still, with those two exceptions (I don't know of any others [do you?]) primary highways in the Commonwealth have route numbers between 1 and 599, and secondary system routes have numbers greater than 600.

I know there are other funny situations with major highways that route numbers greater than 600 - I think all of them are "secret" route numbers, such as Va. 90004, which is the Dulles Access Road in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties.