When complete in 2024, two new bridges and seven ramps will carry cars through the interchange over Prince William Parkway.
A new pedestrian bridge over Route 234 will connect to an existing pedestrian walkway winding south past the Lake Jackson Dam.
According to a Prince William County press release, improvements at Route 234 and Brentsville Road have long been envisioned. The land was purchased around the intersection in the 1990s with an eye on future improvements.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is funding the project.
“NVTA has fully funded this project to the tune of $55 million as part of their FY 2018 to FY 2023 Six-Year program,” Prince William County Chair at-Large Ann Wheeler said at a recent groundbreaking ceremony for the Route 243 and Brentsville Road Interchange Project. “The Route 234 corridor is a vital corridor in Prince William County and the Northern Virginia region, and this section of the corridor carries almost 40,000 vehicles daily. This project is also an integral part of a larger mobility plan in the western end of Prince William County along the Route 234 corridor.”
The Prince William County Department of Transportation will oversee the design-build project that is expected to be completed in two years. Design-build means that design and construction on the project will proceed in tandem so that the project can be completed more quickly.
The project came to the County as an unsolicited bid, meaning that Wagman Heavy Civil, Inc. put in an offer to build the interchange. According to a county press release, without the unsolicited bid, and NVTA funding, the project might not have started for some years to come. Wagman will work with Rinker Design Associates as a design-build team along with the Virginia Department of Transportation as the project proceeds.
“It’s unusual that NVTA will fund an entire project. The fact that we did [shows] how important this project is, not just for Prince William County, but for the entire region,” said NVTA Chair Phyllis J. Randall
The new interchange will replace two back-to-back signal lights on Route 234 at Prince William Parkway and Dumfries Road. The new interchange is expected to ease traffic delays in the corridor.
“Ultimately, this project is designed to reduce congestion [and] bottlenecks at Route 234 and Brentsville by allowing free-flow traffic for the most congested movements,” Wheeler said. “It will also include the multi-modal transportation network within the Coles District … through the construction of shared-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists in and out of the interchange.”
The project is one of three new projects the County’s transportation department is working on in the Prince William Parkway corridor.
The County will also build a new $24.2 million quadrant intersection at Prince William Parkway and University Boulevard, near the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus, reducing traffic congestion and leading to fewer crashes.
The department is also building a new $145 million diverging diamond interchange at Prince William Parkway and Balls Ford Road, near Interstate 66.
