County Agrees to Design Franconia Interchange
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County Agrees to Design Franconia Interchange

Supervisors were tired of waiting for VDOT to take action.

Traffic has gotten so bad at the intersection of Franconia Road and Van Dorn Street that Kingstowne resident Kathleen Snyder changed her work schedule to avoid the rush-hour backups.

"It's an extra 15 or 20 minutes in the morning," she said. "This way I don't have to spend that time. Unfortunately, most people don't have that opportunity."

For the past three years, Snyder and her neighbors have been the victims of bureaucratic wrangling between county officials and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The Board of Supervisors has repeatedly asked VDOT officials to build an interchange at Van Dorn and Franconia, but lack of resources and pressing needs elsewhere have prevented VDOT from starting in on the project. On May 10, the Board of Supervisors decided to stop pressing and move ahead on its own.

The Board allocated about $7.5 million in money it received from the federal government to start designing an interchange. The work will be done by contractors overseen by the county Department of Transportation rather than VDOT. Supervisor Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) said the Board took the decision because supervisors were tired of waiting for VDOT to start the project.

"It's yet another way where locally we're trying to advance new transportation projects in the face of no money being available at the state level, and increasingly it appears at the federal level as well," he said.

Also, a state rule that requires money for construction to be mostly lined up before VDOT starts designing a project has created what Kauffman calls a Catch 22.

"We can't get the state to begin with design because now there's a policy where you don't begin design unless you get construction funding identified, and the only way that construction funding is allocated is if the design is completed."

Young Ho Chang, director of the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, said VDOT officials "like to see money programmed so you don't design something and it sits on the shelf for years and years."

The full cost of the project is estimated at almost $47 million and would take about a decade to complete.

SNYDER SAID she was "delighted" that the county was moving ahead with the project. "It's absolutely, incredibly necessary," she said.

At around 8 a.m., she added, the whole area is completely gridlocked. "The traffic many mornings backs all the way down Van Dorn Street. All that traffic is coming from the south," she said. "Every square inch [of land] has been developed, and they're all trying to get to the Beltway."

It doesn't help that traffic lights in the City of Alexandria are timed differently from those in Fairfax County, which exacerbates the bottlenecks on Van Dorn.

Although VDOT is the agency charged with road construction and maintenance, VDOT Northern Virginia administrator Tom Farley said the agency welcomes any help it can get.

"VDOT's been responsible for the roads, but to the extent that others can help us, that becomes a win-win for local jurisdictions as well as VDOT and also the people that use our roads," Farley said.

Ever since Gov. Mark Warner (D) announced reforms at the transportation agency, officials at VDOT have focused on finishing projects on time and on budget. As a result, Farley said, VDOT has avoided starting projects it isn't certain of finishing.

"Right now, we're focusing on projects over the next 24 months," he said. The Van Dorn-Franconia interchange is not on the list of projects to be accomplished in 24 months.

"It's not a priority for us in terms of where we are emphasizing our resources," he said.

That's no comfort for supervisors who hear from constituents unhappy about a worsening traffic situation. Back in October, Kauffman said, he met with Supervisor Gerry Connolly (D-Providence), then running for chairman of the Board.

"He graciously agreed that this was a priority: To find a way to move that project and others forward."

Since the beginning of the year, the Board of Supervisors has adopted its own list of transportation projects it wants to take over from VDOT and complete within four years.