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Traffic
Construction is starting on Route 1 improvements at the entrance to the future U.S. Veterans Health Administration outpatient clinic under construction in Spotsylvania County.
The clinic is being built on a four-story, 450,000-square- foot facility built on a 48-acre site with extensive frontage along Route 1 at Hood Drive in Four Mile Fork.
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The Prince William County Department of Transportation aims to build a seven-story, $53 million parking garage near Wegmans grocery store in Woodbridge.
The plan for the new structure dates back more than 10 years. Initially, planners said commuters would park at the garage during the day, while baseball fans would flock to it on nights at weekends to watch Minor League Baseball games at a newly-constructed stadium.
The public is invited to learn more about a project to modify the intersection of Route 3 and Orange Plank Road in Spotsylvania County to enhance safety and to provide comments on the proposed design.
The project seeks to improve guidance for motorists turning left from Route 3 westbound and to increase motorist sight distance. The project costs around $228,000 and would be funded through the federal High-Risk Rural Roads program.
Virginians who want to skip the check-in line at their next visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) are invited to schedule an appointment.
Earlier this year, DMV enhanced its operations to provide simultaneous walk-in and appointment services. Although customers are welcome to walk in at their convenience, scheduling an appointment for service saves time.
The City of Fredericksburg announced a major change to the traffic pattern on the one-way streets near James Monroe High School is nearing completion. Weather permitting, the construction project is anticipated to start in late September and is expected to be completed this fall.
Once the project is completed, the one-way streets on Fall Hill Avenue, Washington Avenue, and Maury Street in the Canal Quarter Neighborhood will be converted to two-way traffic. This work is part of the city’s Pavement Rehabilitation Program project for the Fiscal Year 2023.
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The state’s only commuter railroad warns of canceled trains on both lines, from Fredericksburg and Manassas to Washington, D.C. The lines are owned by freight railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern, respectively, and without train dispatchers monitoring the traffic on those lines, VRE trains cannot operate.
“Any labor strike would result in the immediate suspension of all Virginia Railway Express train service until a resolution is reached,” VRE penned notice to riders.
The nine-mile western segment, which spans Route 29 in Gainesville to Route 28 in Centreville, opened ahead of schedule on Saturday, Sept. 10. This westernmost portion is the first section of the 66 Express Lanes to open, and will provide early benefits to I-66 travelers including added capacity, smoother pavement, better travel reliability and new connections. The remaining 13 miles of new express lanes along I-66 between Route 28 and I-495 (the Capital Beltway) are scheduled to open in December 2022.
“Today’s early opening of the first section of the 66 Express Lanes allows the Commonwealth and its partners to begin providing long awaited relief to drivers who have dealt with daily congestion, unreliability, and most recently, five years of heavy roadway construction,” said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller. “By the end of this year, we expect to open the remainder of the more than $3-billion 66 Express Lanes megaproject, benefitting I-66 travelers, and becoming a critical part of the Commonwealth’s planned 90+ mile express lanes network in Northern Virginia.”
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[caption id="attachment_181387" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Interstate 95 over the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg [Photo: VDOT][/caption]
Interstate 95 over the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg [Photo: VDOT][/caption]
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors has expressed interest in researching a Rappahannock Crossing Parkway to alleviate traffic Interstate 95 corridor.
The Board approved a letter to the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization requesting that it research options for a new bridge over the Rappahannock River, west of I-95. The Board also asked FAMPO to consider fiscal impacts, potential funding opportunities, route options, and effects on existing road networks.
The Board asked FAMPO to keep it and other localities informed of any developments in its research. Fredericksburg bypass studies were done in 2013 and 2019. Officials balked when a proposed road came too close to existing neighborhoods.
The Board chose "research" instead of "study," which had been used in a previous draft. Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke said "study" tends to have additional strings, such as federal and state funding. According to Bohmke, using the word "research" would give the FAMPO more flexibility.
FAMPO Director Ian Hollis was at the meeting to answer questions. Griffis-Widewater District Supervisor Tinesha Allen asked what the difference would be between research options now and previous studies.
Hollis said that previous studies had studied a bridge rather than the viability of many potential solutions. As of late, FAMPO's focus has been on rail and transit solutions, getting people out of cars and onto public transportation. Hollis said new methods of data collection could aid in the research, such as streetlight data which can map the origin and destinations of commuters; this method was not available for the previous studies.
Hollis also mentioned that there had been renewed calls for an outer-connector road network that could potentially alleviate traffic issues in the Stafford/Fredericksburg area corridor.
FAMPO's Citizen Citizen Transportation Advisory group's August meeting discussed the viability of an outer connector, which would include an eastern connector road from Stafford to Spotsylvania and a western connector through Culpeper and Orange counties.
Following that discussion, a push by Stafford Supervisors led Henry Scharbenberg, the group's chairman, to be booted from the panel. Scharpenburg pushed the idea of an outer connector without support from Supervisors, knowing an outer-connector road is not in the county's long-range transportation plan, Supervisors told Potomac Local News.
Culpeper and Orange are not FAMPO members and would need to join for the project to be viable, said Hollis.
During the meeting, Bohmke said that she was not in favor of an outer connector for fear of the possibility of urban sprawl.
Another concern from Allen and George Washington District Supervisor Tom Coen was a lack of communication between the organization and the county regarding matters on the connector.
Coen expressed concern that officials in nearby Fredericksburg seemed to know more about the issue than the county did and stressed that they should be kept in the loop if they were to be involved in such a project.
The Board approved the letter with a vote of 4-2-1. Allen abstained from the vote.
Friday – Saturday, 10 p.m. – 7 a.m. Single lane closure in the same location.
I-95 Northbound