Major road projects proposed to alleviate traffic on Little River Turnpike in central Annandale
The Fairfax County of Transportation is considering two options for alleviating traffic on Little River Turnpike in the central Annandale area:
(1) Widening Little River Turnpike to six lanes. A proposal in previous plans to build a flyover on Ravensworth, or possibly Backlick, has been eliminated from the current version, as has a proposal for a service road.
(2) One-way pairs: This option makes Little River one way. A parallel three-lane route would be one way in the opposite direction, along John Marr to Medford. Markham would be extended to McWhorter.
Dan Southworth, a senior planner in the Fairfax County Transportation Department, cautions that the plan is still in the early stages. He expects the department will submit the plan—describing both option—to the Virginia Department of Transportation in early January. VDOT will have 90 days to respond. Public informational meetings will be held in late winter or early spring. A recommendation will be presented to the county Board of Supervisors in July.
“We feel these are the only two options that realistically work,” Southworth says. He believes either option is acceptable and will reduce congestion for local drivers while easing regional traffic for those driving through Annandale on the way to someplace else.
Southworth says widening 236 would be far more expensive and would have a greater impact on the community than the one-pair option. If Little River is widened, he says, “I don’t think we’ll be in a position where a lot of buildings will be torn down,” especially since the flyway and service road proposals are no longer in the plan. “It’s hard to say at this point because the transportation department is still working on determining the impact of the two options,” he says. The businesses closest to Little River are obviously the most vulnerable, but the number of businesses affected will depend on the number and location of turn lanes and possible improvements to intersecting roads.
The one-way pairs proposal “would be marginally better at moving traffic,” Southworth says. But business owners along that corridor might have objections if they fear customers would find it more difficult to get to their facilities.
Southworth believes that both options, if properly designed, could promote a pedestrian-friendly business center. The lack of an approved plan has impeded development in Annandale. Once the transportation piece is on track, developers will be more likely to move ahead with assembling property for large-scale projects.
2 responses to “Major road projects proposed to alleviate traffic on Little River Turnpike in central Annandale”
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Sad, really. As a planner, I am appalled at the narrow thinking expressed in these proposals. My suggestion is to connect McWhorter all the way through to Medford, improve the Medford 236 intersection with signage and spot improvements, and do similar actions on the north side of 236. If you 6-lane the road, you are just propagating the widening schemes that eventually become outdated. Annandale might be a bit crowded during a Saturday rush, but it is in no way unbearable – I have been here for 22 years. Finally, that someone would propose a flyover from Ravensworth strikes me as the height of planning inanity – not only would it just gut the area, but it makes absolutely no sense. Who pays these people?
Thanks for the info. At this time i am going to plan on tentatively attending.
Without reviewing the plans specifically, I would say that the major problem getting through Annandale seems to be intersection and access driven moreso than capacity. So unless the 6 lane option has numerous and substantial improvements to intersections and other accesses to it, I am not quite sure what that gains us. On the otherhand, the 6 lane option would probably be better for getting around IN Annandale than the two pair option (which I think would be better for those passing through).
Unlike James, getting through and around Annandale, while perhaps not unbearable, is substantially harder to do than it should be. At times, I find it intolerable and, thanks to GPS, am able to find all sorts of short cuts/cut throughs. The problem is that many people are doing the same eventhough they are just passing through. In Broyhill Crest, Murray Lane has become a passthrough for people trying to get from the west side to Sleepy Hollow (in lieu of going 236 or Gallows to Columbia to SH). Point is, congestion in Annandale is pushing drivers into the communities around it. I think we can all agree that that is not desirable. I can see a number of pros and cons with both proposals, especially given the proposed future direction of Annandale.