The Great Falls Citizens Association has raised concerns about the findings of a road safety audit conducted by Kimley-Horn, a engineering, planning, and design consultant retained by VDOT for $95,000. The safety audit is related to the VDOT Walker Road Bridge Replacement Project, which has a construction start date of early 2025.
At the Sept. 26 virtual community engagement meeting concerning the Walker Road Safety Assessment Study, GFCA board officer Jennifer Falcone said, “Kimley-Horn is acknowledging the findings of the GFCA that it is the lack of traffic calming and safety countermeasures on the approaches to this bridge that makes the bridge design unsafe … VDOT should not wait and be reactive.”
According to John Halacy, president of the GFCA, and Falcone, the roadway needs modifications, including to the sharp curve on the southbound approach to the existing bridge, which the GFCA has designated as the "zone of conflict." This is where northbound and southbound vehicles are likely to collide, and numerous accidents have occurred, they say. Safety measures, particularly speed-related ones, are also needed. Halacy says this in his Sept. 26 message to membership sent early in the afternoon, the day after VDOT held its second virtual community engagement meeting.
The road safety audit was initiated in September of 2023 after GFCA contacted then-Supervisor John Foust, VDOT officials, and Virginia State Senators Jennifer Boysko and Barbara Favola with concerns about the risks associated with the probable increased speeds on Walker Road.
In his news update, Halacy explains that Sen. Boysko and Del. Rip Sullivan ultimately sent a letter to Governor Youngkin in September 2023, indicating that GFCA had identified a "potentially dangerous situation." Halacy reports that Boysko and Sullivan requested an immediate road safety audit and implementing immediate safety measures, such as flashing caution lights on each side of the bridge.
The letter copied Secretary of Transportation "Shep" Miller and then-candidate James N. "Jimmy" Bierman Jr., running to represent the Dranesville District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors as Foust was retiring.
Since the release of Halacy's update, VDOT has yet to implement the safety measures requested.
During the Sept. 26 meeting, Falcone said that VDOT should proactively incorporate roadway modifications on both approaches in the pre-construction design. "We cannot afford to have a tragedy occur, or additional tragedies occur on either side of this bridge," Falcone said.
In his update the next day, Halacy said, "Neither VDOT nor Kimley-Horn have offered any explanation over our concern that wider roads promote faster vehicle speeds, as research by the Federal Highway Administration indicates."
Halacy says in his message to the membership tha, "Nothing to affect safety, as requested by our state officials, has been implemented to address the safety issues — nothing to warn drivers approaching the blind hill before the bridge, and nothing to warn drivers of the possibility of stopped vehicles ahead, nothing to attempt to reduce the speeds and influence driver behavior on Walker Road that have contributed to the accidents that we analyzed. Even the pavement markings indicating where approaching vehicles must stop to yield the right of way have been allowed to fade away by VDOT. This is totally unsatisfactory. We expect more for the safety of the community," wrote Halacy.
Supervisor James Bierman answers The Connection’s questions.
Q. What safety measures have been implemented?
A. Supervisor Bierman: VDOT is in a better position to respond to this question.
Q. Is VDOT's design of the curves flawed? What actions do you recommend?
A. Supervisor Bierman: At the Sept. 25 meeting, the outside consultant reported on the independent safety assessment's findings about the safety of the corridor and possible countermeasures that VDOT could implement. The report is not yet finalized. I look forward to seeing the final written report and expect that VDOT will promptly implement robust countermeasures to address the safety issues in this corridor. I will continue to press VDOT to make sure that the safety issues in the corridor are properly addressed in a timely manner.
Q. Any additional comments?
A. Supervisor Bierman: The presentation made unequivocally clear that this is a comprehensive study that has taken quite seriously the concerns of the community. As repeatedly articulated at Wednesday's meeting by the independent safety engineer, the presence of an atypical one-lane bridge in the corridor presents its own unique safety concerns, such as rear-end crashes and a lower ability to "bail out" in the event of driver error. Despite the mischaracterization by some in the meeting, the independent assessor explained several times on Wednesday's call the basis of her belief that a two-lane bridge would reduce the likelihood of the type of crashes that have happened near the bridge but would not meaningfully impact speed in the corridor, and I expect this to be further discussed in the final report. We also learned that the raised nature of the current new design of the bridge would likely mitigate the impacts of the hill to the south of the bridge. VDOT listened to the community and requested more information and independent data, and now we have it. I wholeheartedly endorse the implementation of additional meaningful measures to address safety issues in the corridor.
Representatives of VDOT did not immediately respond to The Connection’s questions.