This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
Prince William County transportation planners are moving forward with their plan for a new “bowtie intersection” at Clover Hill Road and Prince William Parkway, entering into a $1.9 million agreement with the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to cover design.
The county estimates that the final price tag for the interchange will ultimately be close to $23 million, which it recently asked for from the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s SMART Scale funding application. Right now, the funding to complete the project isn’t secured, but the county will be kicking off the interchange’s design phase in the next few months. That process will start with selecting an engineer for the design process, include several rounds of public comment and likely last about 18-24 months, County Planning Manager Paolo Belita told InsideNoVa.
By the end of design, the county hopes to have the money for construction secured, though it won’t need much for right-of-way, as the plan calls for much of the new intersection to be within the existing right-of-way. When all is said and done, the current intersection will be turned into a bowtie, in which left turns won’t be permitted at the main intersection and vehicles have to turn right to continue straight and “use downstream roundabouts to complete left turn movements,” according to a county staff report.
“Removing left turns from the main intersection will allow the intersection to operate under a two phase signal control, which increases green time on Prince William Parkway,” the report reads. “The roundabouts will be designed to accommodate large trucks and will be spaces to provide appropriate storage for queuing.”
Additionally, the project will include a 10-foot-wide shared use path along Clover Hill Road.
Belita said the intersection expansion will tie in with other projects along Route 234 like changes at the intersections of Brentsville Road, University Boulevard and Balls Ford Road. Officials broke ground on changes at the Brentsville Road interchange, another project with NVTA funding, earlier this year. The $55 million interchange there will eventually remove the two back-to-back-traffic lights and is expected to be completed in 2024.
“Route 234 is a corridor of statewide significance … We have a lot of other projects along the corridor, so this complements other projects we have there,” Belita said. “This is one of the last major intersections along the corridor that we’ll need improvements for.”
