When complete, a $37 million commuter garage is expected to fill up fast

WOODBRIDGE — The prospect of more parking spaces is closer to reality for Woodbridge commuters.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a new 1,414-space garage in February. The $37- million garage will be located near a Wegmans store at Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, said Board Chairman At-large Corey Stewart.

The garage is the last vestige left over from a failed effort to build a new 35,000-seat stadium for the Potomac Nationals next to Wegmans. The team has since secured a new stadium deal in Fredericksburg.

The new garage aims to replace the 750 commuter parking spaces that were lost in 2011 due to an expansion of Potomac Mills mall. But, by the time it opens, the garage will start to fill up.

“We could lose one-quarter of that lot on day one,” said OmniRide Executive Director Bob Schneider.

Drivers who now park on concrete islands and grassy knolls at the Horner Road and Route 234 commuter lots in eastern Prince William County are expected to drive to the new garage to find something they don’t have in the other lots — an actual parking space.

And then you have the out-of-towners who will use the new garage.

“You’ve got people from Stafford who may drive to the lot and catch a bus or slug from there,” he adds.

Schneider says the new garage will most likely be one of the last investments of its type, size, and scale in the region for years to come. It’s being built with federal money that’s being flowed through the Virginia Department of Transportation, ultimately down to the county government which will oversee its construction.

Elected officials still say more commuter parking is needed

“That’s the thing about living in a growing region; there’s always going to be more traffic and we’re going to need to continue to build more capacity for more park and ride spaces,” said Stewart.

Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson agrees, but she said drivers also need to know about two underused lots, and to consider parking there:

• Old Hechinger’s Lot at Route 123 and Old Bridge Road in Lake Ridge
• Annapolis Way Lot at Interstate 95 and Route 123 in Woodbridge

The second lot on Annapolis Way is what’s known as a commuter “time suck,” meaning drivers must go out of their way to access the lot, which adds valuable minutes to their commute.

“Time is the most important commodity to people,” said Schneider.

And that’s a key consideration when OmniRide looks to add new service to areas like the new parking garage. It’s talking about adding a new shuttle service to the garage to and from area neighborhoods that would connect commuters with OmniRide buses and slug lines.

There is some good news on the commuter parking front on the western side of Prince William County. A new 230-space commuter lot at the corner of Route 15 and Interstate 66 opened to drivers on Monday, the first of three new lots to be built as part of the Interstate 66 E-ZPass Express Lanes project. When complete, two additional lots will be located at Route 26 and I-66 in Gainesville and Balls Ford Road near Manassas and will provide direct access to the toll lanes.

Along with the new lot, a new OmniRide commuter bus which provides services from Haymarket to Rosslyn. It’s OmniRide’s first commuter bus service in Haymarket.