Funds approved for Seven Corners Ring Road
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority adopted a Six Year Program that includes funds for the Seven Corners Ring Road and Braddock Road improvements.
The NVTA approved a total of $696.6 million for FY 2024-29 in support of 24 multimodal transportation projects across the region.
The funds include $122.2 million for preliminary engineering and design, right-of-way acquisitions, and construction for the first phase of the Ring Road. That’s the full amount requested by Fairfax County.
The Seven Corners Ring Road project would reconfigure the congested and confusing interchange at Leesburg Pike, Arlington Boulevard, and Wilson Boulevard to improve traffic flow and provide a safer trip for bicyclists and pedestrians.
The first phase of the project calls for a new road starting at Route 50 on the western side of the interchange, traveling over Route 50, and connecting to Castle Place/Sleepy Hollow Road and Route 7 on the eastern side.
The Ring Road was included in the updated Seven Corners Comprehensive Plan approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2015. The entire project isn’t expected to be completed until 2045.
The Braddock Road Multimodal Improvements Phase II Project received $27.3 million for preliminary engineering and design and right-of-way between Humphries Drive and Southampton Drive in the Braddock District. The county had requested $90 million to also cover construction costs.
The project includes intersection improvements, shared-use paths on both sides of Braddock Road, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, trail connections in the corridor, a HAWK (high-intensity activated crosswalk beacon) signal at Grantham and Burke Lake Road, and a possible HAWK signal on Braddock near King David Boulevard/Dunleigh Drive.
Related story: County seeks more funding for Seven Corners ring road
The NVTA also approved $101.4 million for multimodal improvements on Route 7 between the beltway and I-66 and $112 million to extend and implement intersection improvements on Frontier Drive in Springfield.
Other projects in the NVTA’s six-year program are in Arlington, Loudoun, and Prince William counties; and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park. Improvements to the VRE Backlick Road Station are also funded.
“Each project in this Six Year Funding Program reflects NVTA’s unwavering commitment to reducing congestion and improving the quality of life for Northern Virginians,” said Phyllis Randall, NVTA chair and chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.
is this ring road an elevated highway, or is the plan to use eminent domain and bulldoze a bunch of houses/businesses. that’s never popular.
Elevated.
This is good news.
No pedestrian or bike garbage. This needs to work for cars. The ratio of cars to pedestrians or bikes is about 10,000:1.
Somehow this update will be worse than it already is.
Preach! Surprised it’s not strictly for bikes tbh.
This is static thinking. No one walks or bikes through there because it is too dangerous from the vehicles. 7 Corners will continue to decline until it is made more walkable. It is not the 1950’s any more.
7 corners declined parametrically with the addition of nearby low income housing. Lack of safety is what makes the area undesirable. There are already plenty of people walking all over the place, sleeping all over the place, hanging in large groups. Yesterday I witnessed a fight where one man attacked another for apparently bumping into him. The bumped man stripped out a 12 pack of beer out of the other man’s hand. They were screaming at each other in Spanish so I don’t know exactly what was said but I recognized the swear words.
If you read this blog and the crime report, 7 corners has multiple incidents every day.
Despite this, I still go there. I will spend not a dollar more or less if it’s more walkable.
However if I can get in or out or through the area with my car and not sit in a horrendous traffic jam every time, I will spend more.
7 Corners should honestly be turned back into an indoor mall, only more modern with mixed-use buildings and more high-end housing to replace the older housing that honestly is not up to code. The traffic should be cleaner if we don’t have as much housing to make more room for the indoor mall and perhaps make the metro in Falls Church City for accessible if not expand the line closer by. Not quite sure where the mall would be exactly located but the process would take some time to elaborate out.
That makes sense to me and there are many recent local examples of that being very successful.
Well, we can’t even walk to shop nearby at Seven Corners because of the homeless encampment on Patrick Henry Dr. near the “protected” streambed and the bus stop at Brook Dr. Unhoused people have set up living room furniture, stolen shopping carts, coolers, tents, and misc. furnishings. They turned the green space into a public toilet. Drug deals and robberies have been reported. Soon school kids will need to wait for the bus there. CLEAN UP THIS DANGER ZONE! A handful of folks have removed the ability of taxpaying neighbors to live, walk, and take the bus on this stretch near Seven Corners.
Finally!!! Yes that spot on Patrick Henry and Rt 50 somehow has turned into a shady place. Prostitution and drug dealing! Two weeks ago I saw a woman in the middle of the day literally crawling on the street! I almost hit her. She was as clearly on drugs! Andre Jimenez Fairfax county supervisor lives less than a mile from this spot! And he didn’t see it?!
Finally!!! Yes that spot on Patrick Henry and Rt 50 somehow has turned into a shady place. Prostitution and drug dealing! Two weeks ago I saw a woman in the middle of the day literally crawling on the street! I almost hit her. She was as clearly on drugs! Andre Jimenez Fairfax county supervisor lives less than a mile from this spot! And he didn’t see it?!
I can no longer walk that stretch of Brook Drive/Patrick Henry Drive to shop at Williston and Seven Corners because of the people who have taken over public and private space on Patrick Henry. I can no longer take the 1A or 4B bus. I feel unsafe leaving home. We used to go on long walks around out HIGHLY TAXED neighborhood and frequent nearby 7 Corners shops and eateries. Please restore our public safety instead of forcing us to be home bound day and night.
Everyone needs to start flooding key officials (FCPD, Supervisor Jiménez, VDOT, etc) with complaints. Supervisor Jiménez especially because large voting blocks tend to motivate action.
He doesn’t care, trust me.
I go to 7-Corners regularly, and I certainly don’t any danger – I think any claims to that effect are exaggerated. I don’t pass that Patrick Henry spot, so maybe that needs to be cleaned-up.
I also have to drive through that intersection regularly, and that needs considerable help.
Just yesterday, two shirtless young men jaywalked across 50 toward the Home Depot and Ross. They were on a median and I guess were upset with me for not stopping, and one hit my car with his shirt when I drove by. He continued slow jaywalking with his friend and I watched in my rearview mirror at him stare me down until he was finally out of sight. 10 seconds later I’m at the Patrick Henry and 50 intersection, where aggressive panhandlers walking between cars try to make eye contact with every person and get upset if you don’t acknowledge them.
What is the long term goal for the area? Optimizing how this area works for cars would mean wider roads and less intersections, akin to highways. If the goal is to make the area a more pleasant place to live with more effective use of density then pedestrian and cycling infrastructure is good.
You’re not going to see many pedestrians or cyclists in an area where its hostile to get around by foot or bike and right now its extremely unpleasant to get around that area without a car.
I don’t think its a surprise that the nicer areas to live around here have narrower streets, more sidewalks, and bike lanes while the crummy areas have 6 or 8 lane roads with dirt paths next to them where pedestrians feel like they’re walking down a super speedway.
1. If you provide bike and pedestrian infrastructure, people will use it. That has been proven around the world a million times over.
2. Just adding more lanes to a road increases the amount of traffic on that road, because people see the new lanes and think there will be less traffic, so more people decide to use *that* road.
Can you look at that intersection in seven corners and say it doesn’t need a complete overhaul or more lanes? It’s been rated one of the worst intersections in America.
The bikes on the WOD trail and in the East Falls Church neighborhood ARE the traffic problem. They are rude, refuse to obey the traffic rules, and get mad when anyone, pedestrian or vehicle, or emergency vehicle on a call, interrupts their precious pretend Tour de France time. It’s time the bikes are taxed like automobiles, and the riders actually ticketed for their thousands of daily traffic infractions (imagine that revenue stream for Arlington and Fairfax counties).
I agree that bicyclists need to obey the traffic rules. But most are just ignorant or enjoying the ride because the police do not enforce the rules. The same reason we have all these ridiculous traffic calming obstacles and speed bumps. Most cyclists are good folks trying to stay healthy.
According to the linked Northern Virginia Transportation Authority one-pager, it will include “a bi-directional cycletrack:”
Phase 1A, Segment A of the Seven Corners Ring Road Improvements project includes the construction of a portion of the Seven Corners “Ring Road” from Arlington Blvd (Route 50) Westbound Ramp to the intersection of Castle Place and Sleepy Hollow Road with travel lanes, a bi-directional cycletrack, and parking lanes.
2045…
How old would you have been when it’s completed?
I will be 95 when it is done!
It looks like the Ring Road will take 20 years to build. I would think they could work on it more intensively and not have that intersection under construction forever.
Yep. This means a worse traffic nightmare at Seven Corners for the next 20 years! Yuck!
Has anyone considered turning Seven Corners into a roundabout (without lights)? They work well in Europe and when done correctly they can relieve congestion, reduce vehicle speeds, and protect pedestrians.
Agreed! And does the plan allow for seamless traffic from Sleepy Hollow to Wilson? That is another popular route that gets caught in the molasses of the current configuration.
Roundabouts work fine in low traffic areas (like Scotland), they are a nightmare in high traffic areas (like Southern England).
I walk through this intersection from my house in Arlington to my son’s house in Falls Church. I also use Capitol bike share. There are bike share stations at the Eden center and near the Bake Shop in Falls Church. I support safe routes for pedestrians and bicyclists. If you provide safe routes, bicyclists and pedestrians will use these routes.
2045. So really, half of us have been condemned to perpetually worse traffic for the remainder of our lives. Gee thanks.
After driving through the area for 50 years, I’ve finally mastered it. This probably won’t happen in my lifetime.