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Funding fix for Route 7 proposed
The project to widen Route 7 has again hit a state funding setback, but the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is attempting to keep the first segment of the project afloat.
Although the highway is ultimately planned to be widened from four to six lanes between Rolling Holly Drive in Sterling and the Dulles Toll Road just outside Tysons Corner, only the 1-mile stretch between Rolling Holly and Reston Avenue is slated to receive Virginia Department of Transportation funding in the near future.
Even that small widening project is now shown in VDOT's draft 2009-14 road construction plan with an $8.7 million deficit. The board is proposing bridging the gap with $8 million in county transportation funds that were originally slated to widen Route 7 between Reston Avenue and Reston Parkway, if the state will fund the last $700,000.
The board is also trying to accommodate the concerns of some Great Falls residents about the project. Those residents are concerned that planned dual left-turn lanes from eastbound Route 7 onto Georgetown Pike will encourage more people to use the Pike as a cut-through and will make it impossible for people who live off of Seneca Road to get out of their neighborhood.
“It's commuter traffic trying to find a way to bypass Route 7. ... They're not looking for a way to help the community of Great Falls,” Seneca Road resident Diane Van Volkenberg said.
Van Volkenberg said the high volume of traffic at peak hours makes it very dangerous for residents trying to pull out of her neighborhood and she believes that two turning lanes will only make the situation worse.
The board voted Monday to ask VDOT if there are alternatives to replacing the single left-turn lane, which, according to county transportation staff, is now essentially at the maximum allowed length and typically backs up into the left through lane of Route 7. The board will also request VDOT to hold a new public hearing on the project.
However, Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville), who wanted the board to mandate a change to the project design eliminating the left turn lanes as a condition of using county funds for the project, said VDOT “refuses to consider a single turn lane” and that a hearing won't change that.
The other board members softened Foust's proposed mandate to a requested review of options due to concerns about delaying the project even further, and because the board previously approved the design.
“I think we all have concerns about how traffic moves through our communities,” Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) said. “If we change the design ... It just means more money in the future to correct the problems.”
Times Staff Writer Monty Tayloe contributed to this report.
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