Transportation Project Breaks Ground In West Falls Church

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Local officials broke ground Monday on a transportation project that will bring multimodal improvements to Falls Church near George Mason High School and future Little City Commons development.

The project's main objective is to reduce traffic congestion, but it will also include improvements for different forms of transportation and bolster access to the West Falls Church Metro and Virginia Tech center. The city will replace or install and synchronize four intersections at Route 7 and Haycock Road, Route 7 and Chestnut Street, and Haycock Road and the school access road. These changes will be accompanied by bus stop enhancements at or around the intersections.

A high-intensity pedestrian activated crosswalk will be installed on Haycock Road to improve access to the school campus. Other pedestrian improvements will include widening sidewalks at the four intersections as well as along Route 7 between the West Falls Church Metro and Haycock Road.

Bicycle access improvements will round out the project. One of these, a Capital Bikeshare station at George Mason High School, has already come to fruition.

The project is being led by the City of Falls Church with funding coming from a Northern Virginia Transportation Authority grant of $15.7 million. Monica Backmon, executive director of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, told Patch people can lose time waiting at intersections because of signal timing or queuing lanes not being long enough. She says frustrated commuters can now see work is underway and improvements are coming. "We can provide better multimodal access," she said. "It does have an impact on the quality of life. Every bit helps when it comes to these infrastructure improvements."

Falls Church Councilman David Snyder, the city's representative to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, told Patch the intersections is currently not well designed for pedestrians, bicyclists and e-scooter users. He says improvements will benefit current and future users of this corridor while tying into long-term transportation plans for the region. "I'm particularly excited for the placeholder for the Bus Rapid Transit station," he says, referring to a Falls Church stop on a future Route 7 Bus Rapid Transit between the Spring Hill Metrorail Station in Tysons and the Mark Center in Alexandria.

Utility undergrounding and relocation work has already begun. City staff expect design, engineering, and environmental work for the project to kick off in fiscal 2021 (between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021). Construction could start in fiscal year 2022 and be completed in fiscal year 2023.

The project will be aligned with work on the future Falls Church development. Snyder says the new George Mason High School is expected to be completed in 2021. Once that's finished, the old George Mason High School will be torn down, allowing construction to begin on the Little City Commons development.