Traveling from Route 7 to Route 28 takes longer than it used to with a new ramp that loops in a wide angle over Route 7.
For those drivers staying on Route 7 past Route 28's north side exist, they have to drive in two lanes for about a mile to just before George Washington Boulevard, when the road returns to three lanes. The location of the lanes drivers can use also changes as construction crews from Fairfield Echols in Fisherville work on a years-long project that eventually will connect Algonkian Parkway to Routes 7 and 28.
"When it's finished, it's a long interrelated interchange among the three roadways," said Art Smith, program manager for the county's Office of Transportation Services. "A number of the lanes that are down are temporary lanes."
The access ramp onto Route 28 was temporarily moved to allow more work room for a project expected to be finished sometime next year, Smith said.
Lerner Enterprises, developer of the Dulles Town Center, created a community development authority in the mid-1990s to develop the infrastructure for the mall and the surrounding development, including constructing a section of Algonkian Parkway as part of its proffers to the county. The Board of Supervisors appointed the five members of the quasi-governmental authority.
THE ROAD EXTENSION is expected to serve traffic north of Route 7 and give additional access to the Dulles Town Center.
"It serves a number of purposes. It provides easy access to the town center," said Brian J. Cullen, chairman of the Dulles Town Center Community Development Authority (CDA) and a land developer for Keane Enterprises in Ashburn. "It ties together a major road network. [Drivers] could go from Fairfax County Parkway to Dulles Town Center without ever going on Route 7. It's going to take trips off of Route 7."
Currently, Algonkian Parkway loops to the north of Route 7 from Fairfax County Parkway to where it ends at Winding Drive. The five-mile section will be continued underneath Route 7 past the Dulles Town Center to connect with Atlantic Boulevard in a project that began in 2000.
"To the user, it will seem like the same road," Smith said.
The project is expected to cost nearly $14 million, with more than half of the costs covered through Lerner Enterprises' proffers to the county, along with $3 million from the county and $2.8 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). VDOT transferred funds included in the state's six-year transportation plan to the CDA.
"It's a private-sector initiative and a lot of private sector funds married with public sector funds and public sector support," Cullen said.
To cover the rest of the costs, the CDA raised bonds for the project, which is divided into three phases.
THE FIRST PHASE, which is expected to cost $8 million, includes building two bridge decks to extend Route 7 over Algonkian Parkway. The first deck was poured earlier this year and the second deck is scheduled for pouring on Oct. 8.
Phase two includes connecting Algonkian Parkway where phase one ends to the road's existing section in Countryside. The phase is expected to cost $3 million and will be covered by county funds, which the county handed over to the development authority. The third phase will be funded by VDOT to construct the remaining of the seven ramps and loops that are needed to complete the interchange.
The phase three work "was transferred to the CDA, and they contracted everything to get that piece of work done, since they were already mobilized and doing the balance of the interchange," said Terrie Laycock, assistant to the county administrator. "So it made sense and it was much more cost effective and timely than if we had to have VDOT do it."
"It ended up saving the state $1-2 million by doing it early," said Ryan Hall, VDOT spokesperson.