Area residents and school officials are getting ready to adapt to traffic slowdowns and street access nearly one month before the probable start of a more than $4 million reconstruction of a three-quarter mile stretch of Beulah Road that will likely last until the summer of 2008.
"This [project] is to reconstruct this section of road, curbs and gutters," said Sanjeev Suri, VDOT general construction manager in charge of the project. "Basically, it's putting in closed storm water draining and bringing the road up to new standards."
The project, which has been in the works for several years, will require all northbound traffic on two-lane Beulah Road, that connects Route 7 with Maple Avenue, be diverted through Old Courthouse Road throughout its duration, according to Suri. Currently, it is projected to begin sometime at the end of April, as soon as all of the paperwork from Alexandria-based contractor Martin & Gass, Inc. is turned in and approved, Suri added.
The construction, which will take place entirely within Vienna town limits, will be overseen and managed by VDOT, with the Town of Vienna playing a liaison role between residents and the state organization, according to Holy Chu, director of public works for Vienna
"Unfortunately there's no easy way to do this kind of construction on a busy road," Chu said, "but we're going to do everything that we can to limit its impact during this time."
TO BEST COMMUNICATE with all of the affected members of the community, VDOT and the Town of Vienna have been hosting continual meetings with residents of the highly residential road as well as with representatives from Wolf Trap Elementary School, also located on Beulah Road.
The project, which will maintain the physical dimensions and posted speed limit, will likely require some tree cutting and removals as well as some possible movement of fencing, Suri said, adding that all of the residents have been active in the planning process.
"All these things have been addressed during public hearings that the town had before this was approved," he said. "Everything that we're going to do is on the plans that the residents had input on."
While the temporary traffic congestion will likely be inconvenient, Vienna resident Paul Brown, who has lived on the 300 block of Beulah Road for 15 years, said that he is excited to see the road finally get improved.
"You've got to put up with a little sometimes in order to get the benefits," he said.
Beulah road resident Paul Comiskey, who said that he was told that he would likely need to be compensated for a fence and bushes that may need to be removed from the front of his property, agreed.
"We'll just put up with it for a year, as long as it doesn't get any worse than they say, it should be OK," Comiskey said.
WOLF TRAP ELEMENTARY School has already been working with the VDOT and Vienna to determine the best way to accommodate students who need to get to school in the mornings. The most likely result will be increased bus lines and some diverted routes, according to Ken Campo, safety specialist with Fairfax County Public Schools.
At first, there will not be much difference for the students who live in the subdivisions along Beulah Road, as the current walking path to the school will continue to be open, he said. But once construction switches to the other side of the road in the fall or winter, new bus lines will more than likely have to be opened for the children's safety, he added.
"What we'll do is we'll put a bus there somewhere near the ends of the streets for the kids who live along that area who normally walk to school," Campo said. "We don't want them walking through a construction site to get to school."
The buses that need to travel northbound from downtown Vienna to the school will use Beulah Road, while the children who are currently picked up by northbound buses on Beulah Road may see their stop changed to a Glyndon Street location, approximately one block southwest of Beulah, according to Campo.
Fairfax County Public Schools has not foreseen an earlier bus pick-up schedule due to increased traffic at this time, Campo added.
"Fortunately, they're so close to that school as it is, so we're hoping the worst thing we'll have to do is" spend an extra couple minutes getting to the school in the morning, he said.