A safety improvement project that would add a pedestrian bridge along James Madison Highway near Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia, may be in jeopardy.
At a Prince William County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, Supervisor Bob Weir, who represents the Gainesville district, said both the estimated $25 million cost and lack of pedestrian traffic may result in the county exploring other safety alternatives.
Last year, the board directed county staff to study pedestrian traffic along U.S. Route 15 near Battlefield High School, as well as near four other schools. The findings, Weir said, don’t “support or warrant a pedestrian bridge based on study.”
At the meeting, Weir directed staff to cancel plans for the pedestrian bridge and reallocate funding for that project to a new initiative that would expand the size of a nearby parking lot, “in an effort to address the problem with an alternate solution.”
The Prince William Times first reported that the county may not proceed with the project.
The idea for a pedestrian bridge became a county priority after two high schoolers were killed crossing the street in 2021 during separate collisions. But Weir, elected in a special election last year, said the project was “overpromised.”
“There is a traffic light there, but just seeing all the cars flying by, it’s quite a concern,” Battlefield parent Yubo Zhang said.
The county added a speed camera on one side of Route 15 near Battlefield, and lowered the speed limit in the mornings and afternoons while students arrive and leave.
Usually, the speed limit is 55 mph, but when the school zone lights are flashing, it drops to 35 mph.
The intersection has several lanes of traffic in each direction, as well as crosswalks and sidewalks.
Cyclists, runners and walkers, in addition to students, find themselves crossing the busy highway, Zhang said.
“How expensive does a life cost?” Zhang said. “How many more do we need to see, that accidents caused to our students, to prove this is too expensive. To me, that’s just not an excuse.”
Instead of the bridge, Weir suggested that the county invest in making a parking lot near Battlefield High bigger. Some of the pedestrian traffic, he said, comes from students who park their cars in a shopping center across the street and then have to cross Route 15 to get to and from school.
Elizabeth, who was riding her bike near the school Wednesday, said she would prefer there not be a bridge and instead urged drivers to pay attention along the road.
“If people followed the lights, they’d be OK,” she said. “But a lot of people run yellow lights, and then they end up being red, and people have already started crossing the opposite way.”
Another cyclist, though, called the pedestrian bridge a “good idea” because of the high speed limit along the road and student deaths.
The board will ultimately have to decide whether to cancel the original pedestrian bridge project entirely.
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