Why this island soon won’t block your flow on Prince William Parkway

A small concrete island blocking the flow of three travel lanes on Prince William Parkway will be moved.

With nothing more than a crosswalk signal on it today, the concrete island stands in the way of drivers and Prince William County transportation planners who would prefer to have three continuous travel lanes on eastbound Prince William Parkway at Minnieville Road in Woodbridge.

Ongoing work on widening a portion of the parkway — from Minnieville Road to Old Bridge Road — will be completed next week. But that project didn’t address the island, whichprevented the county from building three continuous lanes of traffic on Prince William Parkway across Minnieville Road.

The about-to-be-completed widening work on Prince William Parkway widened the road to six lanes east and west, up from four. Drivers headed east in the newly added right lane must turn right onto Minnieville Road and cannot continue straight onto Prince William Parkway, as the lane ends.

Drivers in the center and left lanes may continue toward Potomac Mills mall.

Prince William County Transportation spokesman Rick Canizales said there wasn’t enough money in the soon-to-be-completed widening project to move the concrete island — which is very important to traffic flow.

“If we didn’t have that island there, it would cause Minnieville Road to become very congested,” he said.

The island allows drivers on eastbound Minnieville Road turning right on Prince William Parkway toward Potomac Mills mall a continuous “free flow movement” right turn. After they turn, the lane continues and drivers do not have to merge left into a travel lane.

Canizales added that without the island and free-flow lane, traffic waiting to turn right onto the parkway would stack up on Minnieville Road as drivers would be forced to wait for their turn to merge into oncoming traffic.

An additional $2.5 million in monies made available to the county transportation department following the annual budget process this past spring will allow crews to “retrofit” the island. The island will be moved a bit to the west, and a new “free flow movement” lane will be constructed for drivers turning right from Minnieville onto the parkway.

The old free-flow lane will be converted into a regular travel lane, and that will allow for three continuous travel lanes across Minnieville Road. When the newly added free-flow lane opens, drivers turning right onto the parkway from Minnieville Road will have to merge left from the new free-flow lane into one of the three travel lanes to continue toward Potomac Mills mall.

Canizales said the county was in talks with three property owners who will need to give up some land in exchange for at least $68,000 in right of way monies paid by the county to affected land owners. The affected properties include a business building at the corner of Prince William Parkway and Minnieville Road and two townhomes inside the nearby Lakeside neighborhood across from BJ’s Wholesale Club.

No buildings or homes will be demolished as part of the work. Only small portions of the property, or “partial take right-of-ways” will be required to construct the new free-flow lane and to move the island, said Canizales. Large poles at the intersection that support traffic signals had already been moved as part of the soon-to-be-completed road work in preparation for moving the island.

Utility relocation should begin in September after right-of-way negotiations wrap up. Construction is slated to begin in spring 2017 2016 and should be finished later that summer.