WASHINGTON — The Pence Gate, the main gate of Fort Belvoir, is closed to accommodate the ongoing U.S. 1 widening project in that corridor. The closure could last four to six weeks.
“We’re doing our best to make sure the work doesn’t take forever,” said Doug R. Hecox, public affairs specialist at the Federal Highway Administration. “They’re working 10-hour days and Saturdays.”
Work to widen the highway from four to six travel lanes between Mount Vernon Memorial Highway and Telegraph Road is expected to wrap up in April of next year.
Most of the new 3.5-mile path is next to the existing highway. But on the northernmost end of the project, traffic will be moved onto an entirely new path created to avoid disrupting a historic cemetery.
“The act of having to exhume and move some of the people who’ve been resting there for more than a century seemed unduly complicated and the wrong thing to do,” Hecox said. “So, we left them where they were, where they belong, and we moved the road.”
The project will culminate next spring with traffic being moved onto the entirely new portion of road that is the final phase of the project.
The construction corridor encompasses a number of locations of historical significance. “We go out of our way to protect them when we can,” Hecox said.
When road construction is done, work will begin on a multi-use trail alongside U.S. Route 1. The projecting completion date for the recreational element of the project is sometime next June.
Find more information about efforts to mitigate traffic hassles related to the Pence Gate closure below (Courtesy of Mount Vernon District Fairfax County Supervisor Dan Storck).
Questions and answers about the closure of Pence Gate by wtopweb on Scribd
