A road diet is coming to a portion of Sterling Road in Herndon, providing interim safety improvements while the town scours for funding to support a larger-scale overhaul.
Crews are slated to begin restriping the road between Herndon Parkway and Elden Street tomorrow (Tuesday), necessitating detours and lane closures, the town said in a newsletter sent Friday (May 17). The Herndon Police Department advises avoiding the area “until the road work has been completed.”
The approximately $50,000 project will replace one eastbound travel lane with a middle turn lane, while adding a northwest-bound through lane at the Herndon Parkway intersection, according to the project page. New signs will also be installed, and some crosswalks and stop bars will get restriped.
The road work is expected to take about three days to finish, Herndon spokesperson Anne Papa told FFXnow. The road diet will “facilitate safer turning movements, encourage compliance with the posted speed limit, improve sight distance, and improve operations at signalized and stop-controlled intersections,” according to the town.
“This interim configuration will help to evaluate the effectiveness of the road diet and prepare traffic patterns for the ultimate conversion of Sterling Road to a multi-modal facility in future years,” Papa said.
The town applied for $1.5 million in federal funds late last year for a more substantial Sterling Road reconfiguration that would permanently convert the three-lane section into a two-lane roadway with a middle turn lane and a landscaped median “where appropriate,” according to a summary in the most recent Capital Improvement Program (CIP).
The project would also determine whether the Crestview Drive intersection should get a traffic signal and evaluate the feasibility of a bicycle facility from Elden Street to the town limits.
More from the CIP:
The concept design is to include ADA-accessible sidewalks, proposed bike facilities, and street lighting on both sides of the street and along the entire length of the project. This project also analyzes the potential for better re-alignment at the Sterling Road intersections with Elden Street, Crestview Drive, and Herndon Parkway. The project also implements access management and multi-modal measures, improves traffic signalization, adds applicable turning lanes and provides for landscaping and safer ADA-accessible sidewalks; all in an effort to increase safety, reduce congestion, enhance circulation and connectivity while retaining the residential character of the Sterling Road corridor.
The town currently estimates that the multi-modal project will cost more than $7.8 million, but design and engineering work isn’t expected to start until 2027.
Papa told FFXnow in December that the project had been put on hold for the time being, first due to Covid-related delays and then because of a “need for additional funding.”
Image via Google Maps
