<bt>Good news for bicyclists, joggers and walkers who have been fending for themselves while crossing Church Road in Old Sterling.
Contractors have begun work on a bridge over the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad bike and pedestrian trail so people can cross unimpeded by traffic, said Susan Shaw, Virginia Department of Transportation Route 28 project manager. The project will take 12 to 18 months to complete, she said. The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, which owns the trail, counted 1,640 W&OD users on a Sunday afternoon in June 2000. The majority were bicyclists. Another survey of the trail has not been conducted in the last five years.
Laborers have dug trenches alongside the trail and on both sides of the road to relocate utilities.
VDOT is building a four-lane bridge, and widening Church Road to four lanes on both sides of the span.
THE PROJECT is part of a new interchange project at the intersection of Church Road, Waxpool Road and Route 28, west of the W&OD. Because the bridge would cross the trail, the developer was required by federal law to obtain replacement land for the Park Authority. Dewberry & Davis LLC and VDOT proposed closing a crossing in Ruritan Circle, 300 feet north of the planned bridge, to motor vehicle traffic and converting it to bike and pedestrian use. The move would have closed one of two Church Road entrances to the businesses on Ruritan Road. With Betty Geoffroy leading the charge, the merchants succeeded in thwarting the plan.
Geoffroy, owner of Sterling Schoolhouse Antiques for the past 25 years, said she is still reeling from the victory. To fight government and win is "almost incredible," she said.
The businesses have been paying 20 percent more in taxes for the past two decades to finance improvements to Route 28. "We were entitled to keep the road to our business open," she said.
Geoffroy and other business owners favored installation of a traffic light if one end of Ruritan Circle was closed. VDOT said the traffic count did not justify the expense. "They refused to budge," she recalled. "That irked me enough to be at every meeting and fighting it. What it amounted to was VDOT was trying to save a buck."
LAST WEEK, work to widen the lanes between the trail and Magnolia Street forced the agency to temporary close one of the Ruritan Circle entrances. Geoffroy said Friday that she welcomed its reopening, but said all the construction on Church Road is hurting her business. So is confusion over how to get to Old Sterling when shoppers are traveling south on Route 28 at the interchange, she said. "Not a day goes by I don't receive a call, 'Are you still open?'"
Motorists can turn onto Steeplechase Drive at Orbitz and take Magnolia Road through Dominion Station to Church Road, but most people are not aware of that approach, she said.
She expressed concern about widening the road, because people already are traveling 50 to 55 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. "Once it's finished, then they'll come flying off the (interchange) ramp," she said.
Shaw said a traffic signal would be installed at the intersection of Davis Drive and Church Road to slow the traffic. "That should be in May. It's been a top priority since the interchange opened," she said.
SHE CREDITED Supervisor Mick Staton (R-Sugarland Run) with resolving the problem with finding replacement land once it was determined the trail would not be closed on Ruritan Circle. She said the Department of Historic Resources, which oversees the environmental process, ruled that the impact was very small and VDOT did not have to find the replacement. "They were clear it was a one-time decision," she said.
Staton said Tuesday that he called state and federal officials to remedy the problem. "I explained the situation and told them it was only involving 2,100 square feet and it was actually improving the trail," he sIaid.