The Fairfax County Department of Transportation is making progress on the design of a street that will provide a new connection between Tysons East and Pimmit Hills.
Building on a concept presented in 2022, county staff shared a more detailed “30% design” plan for Lincoln Street between Old Meadow Road and Magarity Road at a virtual community meeting on Nov. 13. Feedback on the proposal is being accepted through an online survey until Dec. 6.
Part of a grid of streets envisioned by the county in its comprehensive plan for Tysons, Lincoln Street will provide an alternative east-west route between Old Meadow Road and the McLean area, drawing at least some traffic away from Anderson Road as Tysons continues to develop, FCDOT engineer and project manager Sonia Shahraj said.
It will also allow more direct access to Westgate Elementary School and Westgate Park, Route 123 (Dolley Madison Blvd), the Capital Beltway (I-495) and I-66.
“Between June 2023 and May 2024, 1.1 million square feet [of development] was built, and 1.3 million square feet was under construction,” Shahraj told meeting attendees. “Although this number is for the entire Tysons area, this gives you an idea of the high growth in Tysons, and this is why we need to work on completing the grid of streets to alleviate pressure from the major thoroughfares as well as better network in Tysons.”
Planned as a local street with a 25-mph speed limit, Lincoln Street will have one 11-foot-wide travel lane in each direction accompanied by a roughly 10-foot-wide asphalt sidewalk on the north side and a concrete sidewalk on the south side that varies from 6 to 10.5 feet wide. The sidewalk on both sides will be separated from the road by grass buffers.
The project will require a 235-foot-long, 47-foot-wide bridge over the Scott’s Run stream and trail. Railings for pedestrians and a street light will be included on the bridge.
Neither end of the road will have a traffic signal, but the intersections at Old Meadow and Magarity will both have crosswalks.
Magarity will be overhauled with mini roundabouts at Peabody Drive in front of Westgate Elementary School and at Violent Ridge Place near the Union Park at McLean condominiums. A median will limit traffic coming off and heading onto Lincoln Street to right turns only, requiring drivers to go through the roundabouts to turn left or get to the driveways on the east side of the road.
Shahraj noted that the roundabouts will have “mountable” curbs designed to accommodate larger vehicles, including emergency trucks and school buses. In addition to reducing conflicts between thru traffic and residents trying to get to their driveways, the roundabouts will act as a traffic-calming measure, county staff say.
“Because of the roundabout, there’s yield signs and you have to slow down,” Shahraj said. “There will be advance signs before approaching the roundabout.”
During the two-hour meeting, several community members expressed concern about the project’s potential impact on Scott’s Run and the trail, which they described as a rare oasis for residents and wildlife in the developing area.
Adjacent to Westgate Park, the trail is regularly used by residents for recreation and dog-walking as well as commuters heading to the McLean Metro station. Speakers noted that it’s home to birds, raccoons, a family of foxes and possibly even a bobcat that was reportedly sighted.
“I don’t understand why you can’t just expand Chain Bridge Road and connect Colshire [Drive] up to Magarity and not ruin this park,” said a woman who identified herself as a resident of The Colonies of McLean and a Mitre employee. “There’s not very many parks like this, this little special park in this area, and putting a big road and a bridge through the middle of it is going to destroy it.”
A detailed environmental study, including a look at the impacts on trees and endangered species, will be conducted as the design process gets further along, county staff said.
Shahraj noted that several trees had to be removed for a Scotts Run stream restoration project, but the trees, animals and vegetation has already bounced back.
“When we do construction, we will try to minimize the impact, but in the long run … we think it’s going to come back,” she said.
One resident, however, sounded skeptical that nature will recover so easily, suggesting the road project be reconceived as a trail just for pedestrians and bicyclists.
“As someone who also lives in the Colonies and takes the Scott’s Run Trail daily, this map is going through a lot of old growth trees that will take 70 years to get to that size,” he said. “We need more canopy to protect from the urban heat island effect.”
The area’s steep elevation will also present challenges, requiring the construction of retaining walls by the Public Storage building near the Old Meadow Road and along the Westgate school property line from Magarity Road to a new access for the park.
Based on the preliminary design, FCDOT estimates that the county will need to obtain the right of way from 10 properties, permanent easements from four parcels for the retaining walls and temporary construction easements from 20 parcels.
Construction will also likely affect utilities, including 25 poles and water, gas and communications lines that may have to be adjusted or relocated.
Costing an estimated $47.93 million, the project is currently on track to finish design in the spring of 2026 with construction not starting until summer 2028 and finishing in late 2029 or early spring 2030.
Simulation screenshot via Fairfax County/YouTube
