During their first seven months on the job, the 2012 Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has voted to drop property taxes for the average Loudoun County homeowner and given final approval to extend Metrorail service to the Dulles airport and into Ashburn.
But while those undertakings have secured the bulk of the supervisors’ time and attention, movement on smaller, yet still significant, road projects has progressed.
Chairman Scott York (R-At Large) said the new, all-Republican board has made formulating a clear-cut plan to deal with Loudoun County’s transportation dilemmas a top priority. With various proffers established over the years, different actions by different boards and uncertain state funding, it’s important the board pin down and prioritize road enhancements, he said.
One of the most critical efforts, Supervisors Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run) and Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) agreed, was the decision by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) in June to grant an $80 million loan to community developer Kincora to finish segments of Gloucester Parkway and Pacific Boulevard.
“This is the only remaining real route to move from west to Route 28,” Buona said, noting once those projects are completed, an estimated 15,000 trips a day will come off Waxpool Road.
Williams has repeatedly said securing the state funds for Gloucester and Waxpool was a “big win.”
But that CTB loan was hardly the only road project focused in eastern Loudoun.
On July 17, the board’s final meeting before the August recess, the supervisors approved a deal for a new Equinox data center that includes a transportation proffer to begin the construction of the four- lane section of Loudoun County Parkway near Redskins Park, which is anticipated to improve traffic flow.
Williams said construction on the Loudoun County Parkway-Redskins Park endeavor must begin within three years or before the building permit is issued for the second building. He anticipated it being “much sooner than three years.”
York, the longest-tenured supervisor, highlighted Route 606 and Loudoun County Parkway as two key transportation projects, as well. Route 606 depends heavily on funding from the state, he said, while Loudoun County Parkway can be leveraged heavily with proffers.
“We’ve aggressively looked into what we can do, where the money is, and which projects we can afford ... despite lack of funding from the state,” York said.
Both he and Williams made note that the $33 million proffer from the Brambleton Community to complete Loudoun County Parkway may be moved up to speed the project along.
Additional eastern Loudoun transportation hotspots that have garnered attention from the board include the interchange at Route 7 and Belmont Ridge Road; work along Claiborne Parkway from Croson Lane to Ryan Road; widening Route 606; ensuring maximum lanes along Belmont Ridge and Route 659; and the completion of Loudoun County Parkway to connect to Route 50.
Buona said funding has been appropriated for the Route 7 and Belmont Ridge interchange with design underway and utility relocation and construction to start in 2013.
“Transportation improvements were one of the top two issues that I ran my campaign on – the other being economic development,” the Ashburn supervisor said.
Keeping with Route 7, the Route 15-Route 7-Sycolin Road Flyover project has gone out for design-build procurement.
As for Waxpool Road, a focal point of the county’s transportation woes, the board allocated $1 million in funding for design improvements at Waxpool and Pacific/Broderick.
“This will provide easier access to Waxpool from both roads,” Buona said.
All the projects, York said, are essential for sound infrastructure, which is vital for economic development.
“We’re about moving Loudoun County forward and showing that we’re willing to work with business so they have what they need,” he said.
Still, despite the pages of road designs and proposals this board has sifted through, York, Williams and Buona agreed the most substantial transportation improvement came on a 5-4 vote July 3; a vote that didn’t fund a road but a track.
“From an overall transportation perspective, the largest accomplishment wasn’t a road but rather the passage of Metro,” Buona said. “Metro will create a critical east-west route and take thousands of vehicles off of our roads every day.”
Too bad VDOT doesn’t have some chiefs with logic. Why are perfectly good roads being redone? Last time I went by a work crew, 20 guys were standing around doing nothing while 1 guy was doing work. And would good was it to install new ramps on 7 when they added two new red lights to slow things down? Poor planning and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
Roads are economic pipelines. There costs are more than repaid in taxes from the economic activity they generate.
Which quarry? The one at BRR on either side of the WOD? Or the one on Cochran Mill Rd.? If the load is going south/southeast, going up to Rt. 7 would be backtracking. And as of now, it’s legal for these trucks to use these VDOT roads, regardless of adjacent suburban land uses. I highly doubt our ‘pro-business’ BOS would endorse curtailing commerce by telling an industry which 4-lane VDOT roads they can and can’t use.
AFPkwy parallels the Greenway from Belmont Ridge Road all the way down to Waxpool Rd, widening away from the Greenway the whole time - it does not “intersect” at all. FYI - Where Sycolin Road “intersects”, it is not an interchange, but just an overpass.
The road segment known as AFPkwy is PART of a continuous road as I detailed, the point of which was, it IS a THROUGH ROAD, from Leesburg to FFX County…and thus, it’s common sense that quarry trucks would use this VDOT roadway to get “through” the County. AFPkwy is not some private residents-only parkway, despite what residents may want to believe. We share the big roads. If this were the 2 lane residential collector deep within your neighborhood, that’d be a whole different argument and I’d be supporting you in the fight from having quarry trucks doing needless loops through your neighborhood on their way from quarry to destination.
I think it’s great that you have a radar gun and/or speed up to tail quarry trucks to measure their speed. I would leave the speeding enforcement to Loudoun’s finest. Or call 911.
I don’t care as long as the road is built; we need those cars off of Waxpool.
It isn’t that standard, I used to work with developers. I’ve seen their numbers for acquiring financing that THEY had to get from a bank, therefore my job couldn’t affect their profitability because there was a minimum that banks would find an acceptable risk.
If you want to try and make money developing here, and it is a good project, you should have no problem getting your own financing. If you can’t get it, then maybe you shouldn’t be pursuing the project. Obviously the bank doesn’t think it is a good bet.
So if Kincora is the slam dunk the developers and the BoS sell it as, how come they needed public financing? What happened to Republicans and the free market deciding? Why is government interfering here? A bank could have made some money here.
Alternative roadways: Route 7 is nearer quarry than AFParkway and Greenway basically intersects with AFParkway. Only AFParkway in Ashburn Farm has elementary schools, residences, and day care centers within 100 feet of the road. That is the section which will be, make no mistake this is going to happen, a no through truck designation. Your characterization of AFParkway as a 15 mile continious stretch of road is mistaken. There is no construction going on within this stretch of road, so every truck is a through truck. Speeding??? Are the trucks going faster than other speeding vehicles…a 60 MPH TRUCK poses a much greater risk than a car going the same speed.
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TroyMcClure - That is a common practice to get roads built, they always pay back with interest and the road gets built what is the issue?
Ashburn Farm Pkwy is one stretch of a continuous road, beginning essentially as Plaza Street at Battlefield Pkwy in north Leesburg, then becoming Sycolin Road at Market Street, Leesburg, then it’s Sycolin for miles and miles until Belmont Ridge Road, where it becomes Ashburn Farm Pkwy, which then becomes Farmwell Rd/Blvd, which then becomes Waxpool Road all the way to Rt. 28, where it then becomes W. Church Rd. to Sterling Rd, then Oak Tree Lane/E. Church Rd, to Sugarland Rd, which then crosses over to FFX Co.
It’s marked as Rt. 625 from taht endpoint back up to where it becomes Waxpool (intersection with Waxpool Rd.). Above/west of that it’s marked State Route 640 for some stretch. When it’s Sycolin Rd, west of Belmont Ridge, it’s State Route 643 back all the way up to downtown Leesburg.
That length is 15.8M - http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5626191 .
What “new” roads have been created that should be used instead of (at least parts of) this road, IYO.
Look where the quarries are. Do you know the destinations of these dump trucks? “Speeding” - are they going faster than the passenger vehicles, and how fast?
I don’t see your request having merit. A 4-lane road, divided w/ turn lanes in many parts, that connects other major roads…prime corridor for non-passenger vehicles. IMO.
I still don’t understand why taxpayers are fronting the money so a private developer can fulfill their obligations. Still haven’t started on that stadium huh? Are they waiting for a publicly funded loan for that too? What a scam this Kincora project is going to be.
I also don’t think it will do much for Waxpool. A lot of the cars that clog everything up by Wegmans are going to Brambleton, Broadlands and towards Sycolin to not pay the Greenway’s ridiculous rate. Yet someone will believe the sunshine these guys are spewing.
With all the new roads, it’s time to make Ashburn Farm Parkway a “No Through Trucks” roadway. The volume of speeding dump trucks and other large trucking using this mostly residential road as a cut through for avoiding route 7 or the Greenway is a prescription for tragedy. The road satisfies all state requirements for this designation. The AFHOA and Board of Supervisors need to get together on this and approach VDOT. Perhaps Luckstone can work a deal for using the Greenway.
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