Balls Ford Road widening one of two road projects set to begin

Work is about to begin to widen Balls Ford Road near Manassas.

A deal has been struck between the county and RCKF Bull Run LLC in order to widen Balls Ford Road to four lanes between Sudley Road to Bethlehem Road.

RCKF, the developer of the new Blackburn residential neighborhood at Balls Ford Road and Ashton Avenue, will give $4 million to the county in order to complete the widening project. The wider road should accommodate the increased traffic brought on by the new residents, as well as the heavy amount of truck traffic in a series of nearby industrial parks.

Already RCKF has completed the widening of Balls Ford Road east of Ashton Avenue and had submitted plans for the section west of Ashton Avenue.

However, in May 2017 the county was awarded funding from Interstate 66 E-ZPass toll lanes project to widen Balls Ford from Sudley Road to Doane Drive.

As a result, the county requested that RCKF stop designing is widening project, and instead, turn over the incomplete plans for the western section, and make a monetary contribution to the county to complete the project.

Work is also about to begin on improving the drive into the Rivergate Apartment Complex in Woodbridge.

The county came to an agreement with Riverside Holdings LLC, the owner of the apartment complex on the nearby banks for the Occoquan River,  that will result in the construction of an additional left-turn lane on eastbound Annapolis Way at its intersection on Route 1 in Woodbridge.

The total cost will be $93,356.

Riverside will provide a cost estimate of the project and enter into an agreement with the county to collect and remit the funds to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Riverside received approval to construct the new building of Annapolis Way in October 2014. Part of the deal was to create the new left turn in the construction plans.

The new lane soon became part of the VDOT’s Route 1 widening project. In doing so, the lane’s position changed from being added in conjunction with the construction of the first condo building at the Riverside complex, and will now be part of the second building.

Problems arose when the project became delayed due to rainy weather. This pushed the start date for construction to May 7, so the project won’t be completed until November 2020.

This, in turn, caused a delay in the construction of the second building being developed by Riverside since the terms of the deal dictated that both projects were to be constructed simultaneously, county officials said.