New project starts, Route 1 widening efforts expand in Woodbridge

WOODBRIDGE — Beginning this month, motorists in the Woodbridge area may start to see the dreaded orange traffic cones slowing things down as construction crews begin to relocate utilities for the widening of Route 1 from Mary’s Way to Featherstone Road.

This 1.3-mile section of Route 1 will go from being a four-lane undivided highway to a six-lane divided highway.  Work will include the construction of a 1 0-foot-wide multi-modal trail and a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the sides of the route.

At the Prince William County Board of Supervisors meeting on August 7, the county awarded a $14.5 million construction contract to Sagres Construction Corporation for Phase I of this project.

The Prince William County Department of Transportation is doing the work here, looking at the current and projected needs.

“It needs to be widened for capacity, to carry existing and future traffic,” said county engineer Javier Ibe.

The biggest challenge in the project, according to Ibe, will be the Maintenance of Traffic, known around transportation circles as the MOT.

This project was originally approved by the Board of Supervisors in May 2014 and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority funded the $3 million design work. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is currently widening the stretch of Route 1 between Annapolis Way and Mary’s Way, and has a price tag of $167.8 million. The PWDOT project extends the widening south to Featherstone road, which is just north of Opitz Boulevard which links to I-95.

Several properties along this stretch were impacted, and PWDOT worked with homeowners earlier in the year to mitigate these situations. Among those impacted were the landowners where the Kentucky Fried Chicken once stood, a beauty supply business, and individual landowners.

In March 2018, there was demolition work conducted on several spaces throughout this stretch of Route 1. The project is scheduled to be completed in November 2021 and when done, coupled with the effort underway by VDOT to widen Route 1 from Mary’s Way to the Occoquan River, a five-mile stretch of Route 1 in Woodbridge will be six lanes from the Occoquan River to the Neabsco Creek.