Ron Riehn, a 19-year-old student at Northern Virginia Community College, removed the cap off his black Sharpie marker and began to make circles around the Loudoun campus’ sole entrance, Campus Drive.
"I know what it’s like to sit in traffic right here," he said.
Three years ago, the county hired A. Morton Thomas and Associates Inc. consulting engineers to conduct a Route 7 traffic flow study. The consulting firm presented its findings at a community meeting on Route 7 traffic improvements at the Senior Center in Cascades, Thursday, Feb. 8.
Timothy Wells, a senior engineer at A Morton Thomas was on hand to walk residents through road improvements to the Route 7 and Campus Drive, Route 7 and Augusta Drive, and Route 7 and Cedar Drive intersections. The Board of Supervisors allocated $2.1 million for the project.
Riehn was one of a handful of Northern Virginia Community College students who attended the meeting in opposition to the proposed median closure between Campus Drive, Route 7 and Bartholomew Fair Drive in Sterling.
THE MAJORITY OF STUDENTS coming from Western Loudoun cross a median to get on to Campus Drive. The problem is, there is no turn signal there.
"We are trying to eliminate conflicting traffic movement," Wells said.
The median closure would eliminate the students’ option to enter via Campus Drive. Their only option would be to enter via Potomac View Road.
"That intersection can’t handle it," Wells said. "Potomac View Road can handle it."
Anthony C. Tardd, provost for Northern Virginia Community College, was at the meeting to voice his concerns about the median closure between Campus Drive, Route 7 and Bartholomew Drive.
"Our students coming from the west will have to turn out of Potomac View Road and enter an entrance we don’t have yet," he said. "The new entrance can’t accommodate that kind of traffic on its own. It’s there to alleviate some of Campus Drive traffic. We don’t have the infrastructure or the money to do that. It’s going to fall on the county to come up with the millions of dollars to support that."
While Tardd plans to fight against the median closure, he admitted there was a traffic problem.
There are more than 11,000 students coming in and out of Northern Virginia Community College’s Loudoun campus, Tardd said, and it can take students, faculty and staff up to 45 minutes to exit the parking lot from Campus Drive on to Route 7.
Donna Carlton, a staff member at the college, said she knows of a number of students who no longer park on campus, in order to avoid delays when trying to exit the campus.
"Many head off to work after classes," she said. "Some are parking their cars at Kohl’s and walking across Potomac View Road to get to campus and some are parking at the shopping center across from the college and walking across Route 7 to get to campus. Obviously this is dangerous and a public safety issue."
"The majority of Northern Virginia's students are from the Leesburg area," Riehn said. "What about us?"
WHILE WELLS highlighted a number of other improvements along Route 7 that, he said, would alleviate traffic problems during the busiest hours of the day, the majority of the crowd was concerned with the median closure that would directly impact Northern Virginia Community College.
"We need more entry-exit options, not less," Carlton said.
"They will kill this institution if this happens," Tardd said.
The consulting firm also suggested widening Augusta Drive and adding an additional left-turn-only lane to keep traffic moving off of the side street, heading east toward Sterling along Route 7. The firm also suggested making a right-turn-only lane onto Sterling Boulevard, from Route 7 coming from the direction of Leesburg.
"These are little improvements," he said.
Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) said the Board of Supervisors will review community members’ comments and make a decision within a couple of weeks. Construction is set to begin within 60 days.