VDOT Provides Update on Rt. 7 and Sycolin Projects

The Town Council met with members of VDOT Monday evening to go over plans for a Route 7 climbing lane and operational improvements.

Preliminary Engineering Manager Jim Zeller said that the purpose of the project is to improve safety and ease congestion along westbound Route 7 between W. Market Street and Route 9 by constructing a truck-climbing lane for heavy, slow-moving vehicles.

Currently, tractor-trailers and other large vehicles slow traffic down while traveling the steep grade. The project would help alleviate traffic congestion and improve traffic operations, he said, including safety at various locations within the project's limits.

The project would allow medians to be reconfigured in order to reduce turning conflicts and some side street intersections would be modified, according to plan documents.

Two roundabouts would be constructed where the ramps to and from Rt. 7 to Rt. 9 would meet, a road segment would be constructed to complete the connection of neighborhoods as well as the extension of roads, and an eastbound-run lane would also be constructed on W. Market Street to the westbound Rt. 7 on-ramp. To see the designs click here. 

“What makes this project very attractive is how much work can take place right away,” Zeller said, adding that there wouldn’t be a wait for acquisition, right of way or easements. “Most of the construction along the main line of Rt. 7 is in the median. So theoretically a contractor can break ground as soon as they have a contract.”

The project, which is estimated to cost approximately $39.5 million, won’t cost the town a penny, according to Zeller. Surplus funds from a number of projects, which had left-over money, will be used.

Because the project comes into the town limits, Zeller said VDOT is administering the project in cooperation with the Town of Leesburg and Loudoun County. Design approval is anticipated as early as this fall. Utility relocation and construction would begin in 2013 and would last for about 18 months.

Also discussed on Monday was an update on the . The plan is to eliminate traffic lights and turn lanes at the intersection of Sycolin Road and the Rt. 7/15 Bypass, which is regularly ranked among the most dangerous intersections in Loudoun County.

When the overpass is complete, traffic on Sycolin Road will travel over the bypass and people driving on Sycolin Road will use Battlefield Parkway or the Dulles Greenway to access the bypass.

To read more about the project, which is scheduled to begin in June 2013, . Traffic will be detoured until August 2014, when the overpass is scheduled to open.