Development hopes pinned on $64 million Woodbridge interchange. Will it make a ‘sense of place?’ Or is it a waste of space?

WOODBRIDGE — It’s the second phase of a much talked about project: a new interchange at Routes 1 and 123.

For years, this road improvement has been viewed as a catalyst for redevelopment in “North” Woodbridge. The overpass would remove a traffic light notorious for stalling traffic at the congested intersection of the two major thoroughfares Routes 1 and 123, and would provide direct access to more than 1 million square feet of commercially-zoned land in Belmont Bay along the Occoquan River.

Its four ramps would carry drivers up and down between Route 1 and 123, while its bridge would carry vehicles over Route 1 and the CSX railroad into Belmont Bay, which is already home to townhomes, condos, a marina, and a new science center operated by George Mason University.

Heralded for its ability to efficiently move more traffic more, and for reducing the need for signal lights, the proposed $64 million interchange has also been called “over-designed” amid fears it would do more to take traffic out of Woodbridge rather than make it a place where people want to live, work, and play.

Phase I of the project is to widen Route 1 from four to six lanes in between Mary’s and Annapolis ways, is underway. When the $168 million project is complete in Fall 2019, there will also be a new bridge over Marumsco Creek, a new sidewalk, and a shared-use path for pedestrians. All of the old overhead power lines will have been buried.

Phase II, the interchange, remains unfunded. Its Smart Scale score — a ranking for all transportation projects in the state competing for federal funds — remains low.

Statewide, out of 287 projects, the interchange ranks 247. When you break out the numbers for projects in the Northern Virginia region, it’s 33rd of 45.

While the interchange gets high marks for its ability to spur economic growth by improving travel times, it does little to increase access to jobs, or to reduce the “severe and fatal injury rate” at in the area, according to the project’s Smart Scale scorecard.

When it comes to re-developing North Woodbridge, moving more people through Woodbridge defeats the point, making nearly impossible to create a new, walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented neighborhood, said Mark Scheufler, author of NOVArapidtransit.org and @FixRoute28.

“Are we really saying by building this, we’re making a ‘sense of place,’ with a sense of community?” asked Scheufler. “Who wants to bike next to a six-lane road?”

Scheufler says officials should go back to the drawing board and come up with a more compact design. He points to a recently constructed interchange at Route 28 and Wellington Road, where a bridge carries vehicles over on Route 28 over Wellington, and a ramp connects drivers on Wellington, carrying them up and down, to and from Route 28.

Remaking Tysons Corner? 

The proposed interchange looks like infrastructure one would find in Tysons Corner. Officials shouldn’t aim to remake Tysons in Woodbridge, he adds.

But for business owners, attracting the kind of success seen in at Tysons to Woodbridge is music to the ears.

Nelson Head owns Dixie Bones Barbeque near where the interchange would be built. When he opened his restaurant here, Route 1 had more of a suburban feel with car lots and drive-through restaurants.

Today, many have either closed or have been demolished to make way for the wider Route 1.

Dixie Bones, too, almost became a victim of the road-widening project when plans called for widening the roadway nearly up to his front door. He and other business owners pushed back and convinced officials to redraw the plans.

The Virginia Department of Transportation ended up taking land from a vacant car lot across the street instead — the site of the old Cowles Ford dealership.

Once the roadwork is finished and interchange completed, he says developers will want to snap up old shopping centers along Route 123 (Gordon Boulevard) and remake them into mixed-use centers.

He says North Woodbridge is ripe for this kind of development, and the construction impacts would be few. 

“Right now, we’re a commercial neighborhood; it’s not like we’re a residential neighborhood,” said Head. “Having a million square feet of apartments in front of me, well, it would make the delivery business a lot easier.”

Missed opportunity? 

No money to build the interchange means those who want to see it built must keep waiting. Preston Miller, who represents Caruthers Properties and Belmont Bay, says they’ve been waiting since the 1990s.

Belmont Bay was envisioned as a unique town center on the Occoquan River. Located next to the Woodbridge Virginia Railway Express station, with a golf course, country club, high-rise residential, and commercial space, and a hotel with a conference center.

People were going to live, work, and play here.

In 1998, as part of the proffers for the development, Belmont Bay agreed to pay for the initial design of a Route 1/123 interchange. 

And for a time, the interchange, then priced at $18 million was funded, said Miller. That money was redirected to more pressing needs like the Springfield Mixing Bowl Project on Interstate 95, and to help fund construction of a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River, he adds.

Miller says the current design of the interchange is much more “invasive” than what was originally proposed at the turn of the century. But he says the connection it would provide to his neighborhood is vital, and that by building it officials “would open up endless possibilities to this end of the county, more attractive economically to rest of the region.”

Today, to get to Belmont Bay, most drivers must snake behind the VRE station on the two-lane Express Drive. The interchange would crack open the development, making it more attractive to developers — even those who build conference hotels.

When was the last time a conference hotel builder talked to Miller about building at Belmont Bay?

“It’s been since before 9/11,” said Miller.

In the years since Belmont Bay was approved, sites like Potomac Shores near Dumfries have become far more attractive for this type of development. A conference hotel is also planned for this site.

If the interchange is never built, the hopes of developing the 1 million square feet of commercial space go with it and the zoning will go “stale,” said Miller. 

Traffic circle on steroids 

There may be no bigger resident fan of the interchange that Lynda Silverstrand, who is the Vice Chairman of the Woodbridge Potomac Communities Civic Association.

When it comes to creating a ‘sense of place,’ the interchange itself can be a landmark. She would change the design of it, though, and make it a grade-separated traffic circle, or kind of like a traffic circle on steroids.

She admits the plan has furrowed some eyebrows. She describes how it would look and function in her own words:

My solution makes a ‘sense of place’ and landmark.

If you imagine you are coming from Fairfax going south on Route 123, you will get to the area of Route 1.

If you live in Belmont Bay, you would gradually rise in elevation and go 180 degrees around the circle and continue home or maybe go to the new GMU science center.

In the middle of the circle would be grass and flowers and small bushes. There would also be an art object that looks like a wood bridge.”

If you were headed to points north from Woodbridge you would travel on Route 1 and have no stop light as you approach Route 123, you would go under the circle. If your destination was north Route 123, you would take a ramp up to the circle and go around 270 degrees, and take a short ramp down and continue past Horner Road and on to Fairfax County.

The circle would have sidewalks as well as crosswalks for pedestrians. The area around the ramps and the tunnel of the circle would have artwork.

I personally don’t believe VDOT’s assessment that there is too much traffic for a circle. There might be for one that is NOT grade separated.

It would eliminate one set of traffic lights and the only people who would be using the circle would be the few thousand who live and work in Belmont Bay and those who need to go to Occoquan or must travel north on 123. If you want to go to Route 95 you would just get to that once you get into Fairfax, less than a mile away.