Prince William Co. votes to cancel proposed Va. Route 28 bypass project

The long-promised Va. 28 bypass project, which aimed to take traffic off congested Route 28 through the Manassas, Virginia, area has come to the end of the road.

On Tuesday, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted 5-3 to cancel the project, at the recommendation of the county’s transportation department. The Route 28 Bypass was expected to be a 3.5 mile, four-lane road, when it was approved by the supervisors in 2020.

The proposed route would bypass the section of existing Route 28 — also known as Centreville Road — in the county by extending Godwin Drive across Sudley Road, and connect with Route 28 at a signalized intersection north of Bull Run Stream in Fairfax County, near the recently-expanded Route 66 interchange.

Since then, the project has run into a string of challenges, including the configuration of the bypass, the number of homes and businesses that would be affected, lack of buy-in from Fairfax County, which precipitated a shortened Prince William-only alternative, and the ballooning cost of the project.

During the Tuesday meeting, Department of Transportation Director Ricardo Canizales told the board, “It’s just become unfeasible to move forward, not only because of the Fairfax issues that we have, but also because of the funding aspect of the project.”

Canizales said during the stalemate, the cost of the project has multiplied “and continued to grow as we wait for a Fairfax action.”

Before the vote, Canizales told the board, “Cancelling and closing out the Project will provide opportunities to investigate other alternatives and cost-effective solutions with innovative transportation designs that will improve traffic flow along the Route 28 corridor and reduce congestion while taking into consideration future land use plans.”

The county will likely have to pay back money that’s been spend on the design of the project.

“The Route 28 Bypass Project has incurred $6,537,306 in expenses paid using (Northern Virginia Transportation Authority) and local funding,” according to the report. “Closing out this Project may potentially result in NVTA requesting a refund of its reimbursements plus interest.”

In a separate Route 28 project, aiming to improve traffic flow, transportation planners have approved a second round of funding in long-range plans to improve the commute on Virginia Route 28 between Manassas Park and Fairfax County.

The project, championed by Virginia state Sen. Danica Roem (D-Prince William County), includes $40 million from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to fund road improvements that include innovative intersection designs, a raised median and a 1.75 mile-long sidewalk between the City of Manassas Park and the Yorkshire area of Prince William County.

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Neal Augenstein

Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

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