PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — It’s still early in the effort to improve Route 28 between Manassas and Fairfax County.
It’s been dubbed the worst road in Northern Virginia with nightmare commute times for those who must use it to get to Interstate 66, to Virginia tech corridor around Dulles Airport.
A bypass looks like a favorable alternative to widening the existing four-lane Route 28 between Manassas and the Fairfax County line, cutting through Yorkshire.
That estimated cost of that bypass has increased to about $300 million due to some anticipated retaining walls that weren’t part of the project when it was discussed this time last year.
The bypass would, essentially, be a four-lane, four-and-half-mile extension of Godwin Drive from where it meets Sudley Road near the Novant/UVA Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, east to Route 28.
At a public meeting Wednesday night, residents of the Loch Lomond and West Gate of Loch Lomond neighborhoods made it clear they have two fears:
1. Many of them will lose their homes as part of the project
2. The road will serve not as a Route 28 bypass, but an Interstate 66 bypass for commuters traveling east on Route 28 from areas in western Prince William County, and from Loudoun County.
To the first point, Prince William County Transportation Director Rick Canizales tried to ease fears by telling residents it’s not yet known how many, or if any homes would be taken as part of the bypass construction.
To the second point, Prince William County Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe, who is also the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Chairman — an organization that doles out capital funding for transportation projects in the region — confirmed some of their fears that, despite anyone’s best efforts, traffic will flow like water down the easiest path.
Work underway now on Interstate 66 to add four new toll lanes should draw more traffic to that highway when they open in 2022, he added.
Then Manassas resident Allen Muchnick said something not often heard at what has been an ongoing series of public meetings for the project over the past two years: toll the new road.
Dynamic tolls, like the ones on the I-95 E-ZPass Express Lanes and the ones coming to I-66, could deter some drivers from using the new road.
“It’s a traffic management tool,” said Muchnick. “People will take another road.”
That other road those commuters would take to reach I-66 is Route 234 bypass (Prince William Parkway). Some Loch Lomond residents argued for Route 234 to be widened from four to six lanes instead of constructing the Godwin Drive – Route 28 bypass.
Nohe told the crowd that widening Route 234 is an option down the road but, as of right now is not what’s needed.
“I don’t want to take anybody’s home. I don’t want to take anybody’s business. I don’t. But I am going to find a way to fix 28,” said Nohe.
The iron is hot right now as NVTA approved the project, the funds are there, and Nohe, at least for now, is the NVTA Chairman who also, as Coles District Supervisor on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors represents many of the people who were at the project meeting.
The road project is in its early phases, at the start of an environmental impact study. There are two proposed “build” alternatives for the project:
1. Extend Godwin Drive from Sudley Road to an intersection on Route 28 in Prince William County just south of Prince William / Fairfax County line.
2. Extend Godwin Drive from Sudley Road to an intersection on Route 28 north of Prince William / Fairfax County line.
The second alternative would mean the road would cut through some land on Bull Run Regional Park, on the site of a Civil War battle where 151 soldiers were killed. Federal approval is needed if this path is chosen.
