Parkway plans would isolate industrial park
By James Cullum
Current plans for the construction of the missing 2-mile link of the Fairfax County Parkway will leave businesses in the Fullerton Industrial Park isolated from major roadways, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Federal Highway Administration.
The $174 million parkway link will be constructed in four phases, although only the first two phases have complete funding amounting to $125 million.
“In essence, what's been done is that the whole office park, including UPS, with 250 trucks, Costco, and countless businesses that are located in the industrial park primarily because of highway access, will be completely cut off from I-95 north and the parkway. This doesn't make any sense. It's totally unacceptable,” Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity (R) said.
Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2008 and the highway administration is currently soliciting bids on the project, working in coordination with VDOT and the Army on the project.
The first phase would be the construction of the four through-lane roadway without exit ramps, stretching from where the parkway currently ends at Rolling Road and to Interstate 95, where the parkway resumes its course down to Route 1 in the Mount Vernon District.
At this time, businesses in the Fullerton Industrial Park, along Fullerton Road, have two options if they want to get on the parkway. One of those options, the direct access from Fullerton to Backlick Road, will be eliminated with construction plans.
Fullerton Road is planned to be an overpass intersecting the parkway with no access to the roadway, winding around to a distant point on Backlick Road and leaving drivers far from interstate access.
According to site plans provided by VDOT, that connectivity problem will be rectified when a now-unfunded final phase of the project receives funding, connecting a ramp near Fullerton Road to the parkway.
Currently, with complete access in both directions, weekday afternoons bring backups stretching as far as the eye can see with trucks and commuters waiting to get onto the parkway and I-95.
Mohamed Usmani, owner of Al-Nafea, Inc, a wholesaler of Middle Eastern food along Fullerton Road said, “We have a van and two trucks. Even if going around to get to the parkway is just 2 miles, it eats up the gas and takes time.”
Last week, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors tasked the Fairfax County Department of Transportation to work with project officials to come up funding for the $6 million ramp from Fullerton and the parkway and to include it in the first phase of construction.
So far, the highway administration has included the ramp as an option in its bid package, but there are no definitive plans on how funding will be attained.
“The hope is that the $125 million first phase comes in under budget, as a lot of them have in today's economy, so that the $6 million ramp will be able to be included in the project without additional cost,” Herrity said.
Federal highway officials are a little more optimistic.
Since the first two phases are funded, “There will be ways to get the funding after phase two. It could take the form of a [federal] appropriation, a loan or a rider on a bill,” Federal Highway Administration spokesman Doug Hezox said. “We appreciate the funding answers aren't all clear, [but] it isn't a deal-breaker” in the construction of the unfunded pieces of the parkway.
To see plans for the completion of the parkway link, go to www.vdot.virginia.gov.