Loudoun County — the fastest-developing area in the D.C. region — is trying to prioritize improvements to perpetually congested stretches of U.S. Route 50, a major commuter route through Northern Virginia.
The county board of supervisors on Tuesday will discuss what changes can be made over the next 40 years to improve the east-west route that runs 86 miles through Virginia.
In Loudoun County, U.S. 50 consists of two lanes in the rural western county, where the Virginia Department of Transportation says daily traffic volume varies between 17,000 and 49,000 vehicles per day, from U.S. Route 15 to Old Ox Road, also known as Virginia State Route 606.
As U.S. 50 moves east to Fairfax County, the average traffic volume through the Route 28/Sully Road interchange increases to more than 71,000 vehicles per day.
In 2019, Loudoun County determined that Route 50, which is dominated by traffic lights, would ultimately be converted to a limited-access highway, between still-being-built Northstar Boulevard and the Fairfax County line, with interchanges enabling traffic to continue moving.
Route 28 underwent a similar transformation in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, as has Route 7 in Loudoun County.
In an agenda item to be discussed Tuesday — the US Route 50 Long-Term Improvements & Sequencing Corridor Study — the staff report says it’s still not clear whether an alternative to Route 50 can be built.
Initially studied in 2016, the staff report says preliminary engineering is underway for what’s being called the Route 50 North Collector Road, which would run from the Tall Cedars Parkway extension eastward to the Air and Space Museum Parkway interchange at Route 28 in Fairfax County.
The county is coordinating with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and Fairfax County to determine the exact alignment of the proposed roadway, according to the report.
While congestion near the Route 28 interchange is often a twice-daily inconvenience for Loudoun County drivers, the staff report said the county can’t act alone in making improvements.
“Loudoun County and Fairfax County are coordinating funding applications to improve some short-term spot improvements between Route 606 and Route 28,” according to the agenda item. “However, without increasing the east-west capacity of Route 50 into Fairfax County, congestion will remain and increase over time.”
