Provided by Prince William County
Prince William County Department of Transportation will hold a public information meeting on the upcoming Route 234-Brentsville Road Interchange Project. The meeting will be held at the Lake Jackson Volunteer Fire Department, 11310 Coles Drive, on March 25 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
The Project
The project is scheduled to start in in July or August. It will eliminate the two traffic signals where Route 234 Business intersects with the Prince William Parkway and where the Parkway meets Brentsville Road. Removing the signals and eliminating the two at-grade intersections with a bridge-ramp combination would connect the Dumfries Road section of the parkway with the section of the Parkway between Libera Avenue and Dumfries Road. These improvements will help relieve congestion and considerably increase travel time reliability, said the department’s project manager Dagmawie Shikurye. Another flyover bridge will take Brentsville Road over the parkway to align with Route 234 Business, Shikurye said.
“As budget allows, this project intends to remove the existing traffic signals on the Prince William Parkway – Route 234, and transform the stretch into a free-flow traffic condition at both intersections. In addition, we have included construction of a shared use path that will not only enhances pedestrian-cyclist safety but also advances the multi-modal transportation network of our County,” Shikurye said. “This interchange is unique, unlike traditional interchanges. We have five legs that we’re trying to reconfigure and restructure to decongest the major corridor – which is the north-south corridor – while maintaining all existing movements among the various legs.”
The Information Meeting
The purpose of the information meeting is to allow the public the opportunity to review project exhibits. The public will also have the chance to discuss the project, provide input, and review the tentative project schedule. Prince William County Department of Transportation representatives and people from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will be in attendance.
Shikurye said the department will use the public input to help refine the county’s objectives. Once the general concepts for the improvements are in place, the county can give those concepts to the three companies that have made offers to build the project. The design that best meets the county’s objectives to move traffic along the corridor would then be awarded a contract, Shikurye said.
Site Studies
A reevaluation of an environmental study that was done in 1994, when the project was first put on the books, is underway. People will be able to see the progress of that at the information meeting as well, Shikurye said. “Since the environmental regulations get updated over time, we’ve got to make sure that any nuances included after 1994 are met with the updated road concept.”
In 2018, VDOT studied the two intersections and determined that the stretch of road met its Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions (STARS) program requirements. At the same time, NVTA determined that the road met its requirements as a project that would ease congestion in the region and provided $54.9 million for the improvements. “We are grateful that the $54.9 million project cost is fully funded with NVTA regional revenues as part of the NVTA Fiscal Year 2018-2023 Funding Program,” Shikurye said. The money from NVTA will cover the costs of engineering design, construction, right-of-way acquisitions, utility relocation, and project administration expenses.
Project information and preliminary plans can be reviewed at the Prince William County Department of Transportation website prior to the public information meeting. Written and verbal comments can be submitted at the meeting. Comments can also be mailed to the Prince William Department of Transportation, Attn: Dagmawie Shikurye, Project Manager, 5 County Complex Court, Suite 290, Woodbridge, VA. 22192; or emailed to DShikurye@pwcgov.org. Please reference “Route 234/Brentsville Rd Interchange PIM Comments” in the subject heading.
For more information about transportation projects happening in the county, please visit pwcgov.org/transportation.
