Work is underway to signalize the New Dominion Parkway and Explorer Street intersection on the north side of Reston Town Center.
Mast arms for the long-awaited traffic lights have been erected on all four sides of the intersection, and construction on the curbs, including improved accessibility aprons, are mostly complete, according to Reston Town Center Association (RTCA) Executive Director Robert Goudie.
RTCA, which governs the town center and is funding the project, is hopeful that the new signals will be operational around July, Goudie told FFXnow.
“There are a lot of variables that can impact these projects, but we are hopeful that a +/- July delivery is possible,” he said by email. “Final sign-off and transfer to [the Virginia Department of Transportation] would follow and that may take some time, but that would not affect operation. So the +/- July delivery date is the key.”
The safety of New Dominion Parkway has been a long-standing concern, as Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn highlighted in a 2021 public safety message.
Standing at the Reston Parkway intersection, Alcorn noted that his office and the Fairfax County Police Department had received “many complaints from neighbors about speeding” on New Dominion. He urged drivers to stop for pedestrians and avoid distractions, including the now-illegal use of cell phones, among other steps for improving safety.
At Explorer Street, New Dominion has two westbound through lanes, three eastbound through lanes and one left-turn lane for each direction. However, there are currently only stop signs on Explorer, even though New Dominion has a pedestrian crosswalk on the west side of the intersection.
No fatal crashes have been recorded in recent years at that intersection, per state data, but 27 people have been injured since 2010, when the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles launched its online database.
With a comprehensive plan adopted in 2013, Fairfax County identified New Dominion at Explorer as one of six intersections in Reston that should get a signal by 2030, according to a transportation network analysis finalized in March 2018.
According to Goudie, a VDOT study conducted “some years ago” determined that a traffic signal was warranted at the intersection. Individual property owners in Reston Town Center were expected to pay for the light as a condition of the county’s approval of the original town center development plan.
“The County had no way of easily managing that process or securing the funds, the upshot of which is that RTCA agreed to step into the breach and manage and pay for this project,” Goudie said.
RTCA’s role has included securing easements and permits as well as site planning, but Goudie says the association has gotten “terrific help” from its transportation engineering consultant, Wells + Associates, and its contractor, Phillip C. Clarke Electrical.
The final cost of the project has yet to be determined, but it’s expected to be “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Goudie says.
“It is a signal of some significant scope,” he told FFXnow. “I would not call it a simple install.”
Other transportation improvements under construction in the area include a pedestrian bridge over the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, connecting the original town center with the RTC Next expansion to the south near the Metro station.
When the bridge was announced, Reston Town Center developer and owner BXP (formerly Boston Properties) anticipated that work would wrap up in late spring or early summer of 2024. A spokesperson didn’t confirm whether the project is still on that timeline but said an update should be available “in a few weeks.”
