Board Approves Gallows Road Housing Project Despite Road Safety Concerns

FAIRFAX, VA — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning proposal to allow a housing development across from Woodburn Elementary School on Gallows Road. The project will replace 11 existing homes with 32 single-family homes.

Some residents worry the additional homes will exacerbate an already dangerous situation for pedestrians on Gallows Road. The Gallows Road Transportation Study, expected later this year, will recommend installing two synchronized, three-way traffic signals.

A crosswalk and pedestrian beacon are already installed at the site, but drivers often ignore the beacon, Dan Gibson, president of the Holmes Run Acres Civic Association, said at the hearing.

The Woodburn Parent-Teacher Association asked the developer, Madison Homes, to pay for the new traffic signals. Madison Homes previously resisted the idea, saying it would not add value for its customers, but will contribute $50,000 toward the signals.

Gibson, citing conversations with Fairfax County Department of Transportation staff, said the traffic signals would cost about $1 million. He said he was told it could take 15 to 20 years before the site sees action.

“Children in these new homes are going to have to cross Gallows Road to go to [Woodburn] Elementary School. They will have to cross four lanes of speeding cars,” Gibson said, noting that excessive speeding has been documented in the area.

“Our neighborhood has been advocating for traffic lights at this intersection for almost 50 years, when a student was killed there in the 1970s,” Gibson continued. “[There was] another death about 20 years ago at the same intersection, and nothing’s happened.”