Fairfax County Parkway
The Fairfax County Parkway, numbered State Route 286, is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia, acting as an arterial route in Fairfax County with a mix of interchanges and signalized and unsignalized intersections. Its alignment runs from southeast to northwest and roughly corresponds to part of the once-proposed Outer Beltway around Washington, D.C. The first segment of the roadway opened in 1987; the road was completed in 2010.
The Franconia–Springfield Parkway is a short east-west spur near the south end of SR 286, leading east through Springfield and serving the Franconia–Springfield Metro station. While SR 286 has access to the main lanes of I-95, SR 289 interchanges with the reversible HOV lanes in the median of I-95.
Route description
The Fairfax County Parkway and its branch to Franconia generally have interchanges at major roads, traffic signals intermediate roads, and right-in/right-out intersections with minor roads and neighborhood streets. Along the main parkway, there are 17 full or partial interchanges and 39 signals, with eleven of those signals at interchanges; the Franconia–Springfield Parkway has five interchanges and only three signals. In addition, there are many unsignalized intersections along the road, but none of these are driveways, since the road is limited-access. The road generally has a speed limit of.Fairfax County Parkway (VA 286)
The south end of SR 286 begins at an intersection with US 1 at Accotink and heads northwest through Fort Belvoir, leaving the fort at a diamond interchange with Telegraph Road, crossing I-95 at a full cloverleaf, crossing over Fullerton Road, passing through interchanges with Boudinot Drive and Barta Road, and turning west through West Springfield at Rolling Road. This portion replaced the existing Backlick Road, which continues north from the I-95 interchange and connects to the Franconia–Springfield Parkway. During most of the parkway's life, the portion between Fullerton Road and SR 289 had not been constructed due to delay caused by environmental issues, including an oil spill along its path through the Fort Belvoir Proving Ground. Since approval in 2008, construction began in 2009 and the new portion was opened in late 2010.After merging with the Spur, there is in interchange with Hooes and Pohick Roads. Continuing northwest to the interchange with Ox Road, SR 286 is a surface road, built directly on the former Pohick Road. The parkway beyond Ox Road was built on a new alignment, and has a much smaller number of intersections. Just past Ox Road, SR 286 passes under Clara Barton Drive, a minor residential street. It intersects the west end of Burke Center Parkway, crosses over the Virginia Railway Express Manassas Line and Fairfax Station Road, and intersects several other roads before a freeway section begins at a folded diamond interchange with Braddock Road. A complicated three-level diamond takes SR 286 over Lee Highway at the south end of West Ox Road, and SR 286 crosses I-66 at exit 55, a cloverleaf. After passing over Fair Lakes Circle, there is a diamond interchange with Fair Lakes Parkway and Monument Drive. The next interchange, at Lee Jackson Memorial Highway, is a partial cloverleaf with two signals on SR 286.
From US 50 to Franklin Farm Road, the parkway curves northwest to reach the Outer Beltway right-of-way. This straight path is followed until Baron Cameron Avenue, and includes an overpass at Pinecrest Road in the Fox Mill Estates neighborhood. After crossing the Dulles Access Road, SR 286 follows the east border of Herndon, with interchanges at Sunset Hills Road and Baron Cameron Avenue. The parkway leaves the straight Outer Beltway alignment just beyond Baron Cameron Avenue, curving northwest and north to end at a diamond interchange with Leesburg Pike, at which the traffic signals are on SR 286. Algonkian Parkway continues north as a four-lane local road, eventually curving back west and south to SR 7 just east of SR 28.
SR 286 is also known as the John F. Herrity Parkway, designated by the Virginia General Assembly in 1995, and the Trooper Charles Mark Cosslett Memorial Highway, designated in 2010 as the final link through Fort Belvoir. In 2001, SR 289 was named the Joseph V. Gartlan Jr. Parkway. Jack Herrity served for 12 years on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and was instrumental in getting the road built; Joseph V. Gartlan Jr. was a state senator who served Fairfax County for 28 years. These names are ceremonial, and are rarely used by the public.
Fairfax County Parkway Trail
The Fairfax County Parkway Trail is a multi-use trail that runs alongside the Franconia–Springfield Parkway and Fairfax County Parkway from Beulah Street in Springfield to SR 7, mostly as a sidepath, but sometimes using adjacent frontage roads and old alignments of the roads that the parkway replaced. It intersects the Washington and Old Dominion Trail north of Sunset Hills Road at Herndon, near that trail's mile 19. The final section of the trail was opened in 2002.Franconia–Springfield Parkway (VA 289)
SR 289 begins at an intersection with Beulah Street, with Manchester Boulevard/Kingstowne Boulevard continuing east to Van Dorn Street. The road heads west, with interchanges at the Franconia–Springfield Metro/VRE station, Frontier Drive, the Shirley Highway reversible HOV lanes, and Backlick Road. At the Rolling Road interchange, SR 289 ends and merges with SR 286. Rolling Road south of the interchange was rebuilt to carry SR 286, and a large loop ramp is designed for northbound SR 286 traffic. Beyond this interchange, SR 286 has two diamond interchanges, with Sydenstricker Road/Gambrill Road and Pohick Road /Hooes Road, before a stretch of several miles with only at-grade intersections. From Backlick Road west to this SR 636 interchange, the parkway paralleled and replaced the existing Hooes Road.History
Planning
The Outer Beltway was first planned in 1950 as the "Cross Country Loop", part of the National Capital Planning Commission's comprehensive plan. In Virginia, by the time of a 1965 plan, it was to run through southern and western Fairfax County, crossing the Potomac River at Mason Neck and north of Great Falls, and passing generally west of State Route 123 and east of SR 645. The straight part of the Fairfax County Parkway between south of Franklin Farm Road and north of Baron Cameron Avenue is built where the beltway would have been. During the 1970s, attention was focused on the Metrorail system, and environmental concerns temporarily pushed the Outer Beltway onto the back burner. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the plan was revived as the Western Transportation Corridor, the route was shifted further west.The idea for the Springfield Bypass started in the 1970s as a bypass of SR 644 in Springfield. It was soon expanded, by 1978, to include most of what had been planned as the Outer Beltway. The Commonwealth Transportation Board approved final plans on July 16, 1987 for the road, with 16 interchanges and 35 traffic signals between U.S. Route 1 at Fort Belvoir and State Route 7 near Dranesville. A spur to Franconia was included, providing access to the Shirley Highway HOV lanes and the Franconia–Springfield Metrorail station. Except for a short six-lane piece in Reston, the $242 million plan included only four lanes. Since it was a surface road, the highway could incorporate existing roads. This included portions of SR 617, SR 636, SR 641, and SR 680.
Fifty-five homes and five businesses had to be taken by eminent domain to build the road. Included in these 55 homes were five at the brand-new Innisfree subdivision in Springfield. Only months after families moved into the houses, located between SR 636 and the proposed highway, they were informed that their land would be needed for the interchange at SR 640. Originally planned as an at-grade intersection, projections of increased traffic led to a redesign that required more right-of-way.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors changed the name to the Fairfax County Parkway on June 23, 1988, noting that it traveled far from Springfield. The Franconia Spur was not renamed to the suggested Springfield Parkway at that time, to give time to find a single name for the entire spur, already known as Kingstowne Boulevard at its east end. By the next year, the permanent Franconia–Springfield Parkway name had been applied to the portion west of State Route 613 ; the rest of the road was not built as part of the project, and now carries the Manchester Boulevard and Kingstowne Boulevard names.
Construction
;I-66 to HerndonThree bond issues were approved by Fairfax County voters to pay for construction of the highway, as well as other roads in the county: $135 million in November 1985, $150 million in April 1988, and $130 million in November 1992. The first portions of the road to open were financed by developers building in the area: the Cavalier Land Development Corporation from a new interchange on Interstate 66 north to U.S. Route 50, and the Hazel/Peterson Companies from Stringfellow Road north to Franklin Farm Road, both completed in 1987. On October 24, 1989, the gap from US 50 to Stringfellow Road was filled, and the road was extended from Franklin Farm Road north to West Ox Road. It was further extended north to a new interchange on the Dulles Toll Road on October 22, 1991, and north to Sunset Hills Road on July 7, 1993.
;Franconia–Springfield Parkway
The first piece of the Franconia–Springfield Parkway, a short bypass of Hooes Road from Rolling Road east over Accotink Creek to near Lackawanna Drive, opened on August 7, 1989. The rest of this spur to Beulah Street in Franconia opened on June 8, 1992, along with the reversible HOV ramps to the Shirley Highway..
;Springfield to I-66
The next pieces of the road to open were in the southwest, with an upgrade and bypass of Hooes Road from Pohick Road east to Rolling Road and the Franconia–Springfield Parkway opening by November 1993. The highway from Ox Road north to Braddock Road opened on July 28, 1995, and was connected to the existing portion at I-66 on September 19. Two interchanges along this portion and the older one to the north – at US 50 and at US 29 – opened on December 14 and December 20 respectively. From SR 123 southeast to the beginning of the Franconia–Springfield Parkway, existing two-lane roads were widened, opening the road from SR 123 east to Lee Chapel Road by May 1996 and to Pohick Road on July 2, 1996, completing the road from Springfield to Herndon. However, until a new bridge opened in early September 2002, traffic on Pohick Road northbound was required to turn right onto the parkway.
;US 1 to I-95 and Herndon to SR 7
The southernmost portion, from US 1 north across I-95 to Fullerton Road, mostly an upgrade of Backlick Road, opened south of Telegraph Road by July 1997 and north of Telegraph Road later that year. The first part north of Sunset Hills Road, a short piece from the new interchange with SR 7 south to Sugarland Road, opened by June 1999. The parkway was extended south from Sugarland Road to Wiehle Avenue on November 1, 2000. The road was extended to Walnut Branch with two lanes extended to Baron Cameron Avenue on December 21, 2000. The gap between Walnut Branch and Sunset Hills was filled on November 5, 2001, finally completing the parkway north of Springfield.
;I-95 to Springfield
Construction has been delayed many times on the last segment, between Fullerton Road and Rolling Road, which will allow traffic on the main part of the parkway to connect directly to the I-95 main lanes. Plans were made here in the late 1980s, and it was to be paid for by a developer who was to build a development on land bought from the U.S. Army's Fort Belvoir. But those plans fell through, and traffic growth necessitated a redesign. Plans were again postponed in the early 2000s due to necessary environmental cleanup of that part of Fort Belvoir, which included unexploded ordnance. The Environmental Protection Agency discovered in 2005 that an oil spill on the property had not been properly cleaned., the project had been designed as a full freeway but was placed on hold. As of September 2010, this portion of the parkway opened for traffic, closing the gap that once existed.
;Future improvements
Plans have been made for an interchange at Fair Lakes Parkway, just north of I-66. This project will be funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds. This project was certified on August 10, 2009, and the construction contract is expected to be let August 2010. Furthermore, improvements are being made to the West Ox Road and Sunrise Valley Drive intersections with the parkway along with interchanges with the new portion of the parkway between Fullerton Road and Rolling Road at Boudinot Drive. Additions and improvements to the I-95 interchange with Fairfax County Parkway are currently under development as well.