'New' Devlin Road Proves Difficult for Motorists, Residents

Devlin Road in Manassas reopened this week after being closed for three weeks because of ongoing development associated with Bristow Commons.

But some are still questioning the ongoing construction effort and overall road design.

The new road is indeed a significant change for residents of the Turning Leaf neighborhood. The entrance to the neighborhood is off of Devlin very near to Linton Hall Road, and when the raodway recently reopened it did so with a concrete median.

As a result, guests and residents of Turning Leaf are forced to make a u-turn to get in or out of the community in some scenarios because there is no longer the left turn and out option.

According to Art Kloss, who is the VDOT permit manager for the area, the county transportation officials included a median in the road design for safety reasons.

The entrance to Turning Leaf off of Devlin is too close to Linton Hall, a major intersection, to have full access, Kloss said.

You can't have people turning across all those lanes of traffic, he said, it's too dangerous.

It was fine when Devlin Road was just one lane each way, but it is now a total of four lanes near the intersection where the development is ongoing, and will eventually be five lanes (including Devlin's second left turning lane).

VDOT said the ability to turn left into and out of Turning Leaf was never a permanent situation as the entire road will eventually improve to four lanes in separate future development phases.

He said with all the development happening in that part of the county the road would've had to be widened, whether through a public improvements project or by a developer.

Even though the road has been reopened, it is still the site of heavy construction with rolling lane closures made evident with an abundance of orange construction cones and barrels.

Motorists turning left onto Ashleys Park Drive and Linton Hall from Devlin are forced to make dangerous turns because the turning lanes are being blocked (at least that was the case Thursday).

Motorists have also said that parts of the road have not been paved and a bus stop has been removed because the turning lane where it was located is gone.

The road was originally closed to allow the developer of Bristow Commons to raise the grade of the roadway 18 inches (east of Ashleys Park Lane to Linton Hall) and install storm drains.

The work is in accordance with proffered road improvements between the developer and the county under the approved Bristow Commons Development Plan, which is a part of the county's Comprehensive Plan.

A call to the county's director of transportation planning was not immediately returned Friday.

VDOT said the majority of the roadwork is done but not complete. Still, they redirected the contractor to reopen the road because the standard three-week work area protection had expired.

"The contractor underestimated the amount of work," Kloss said Thursday. "There's still a lot of work out there."