The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized staff on Tuesday (Jan. 14) to make federal grant requests totaling nearly $91 million to fund eight transportation projects.
The application for fiscal year 2031 Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) and Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) funding now goes to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA), where it will be scored against applications from other jurisdictions in the region.
The NVTA will then send its list of endorsed projects to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which is expected to update the Six-Year Improvement Program it uses to allocate funding in June.
Fairfax is unlikely to get all of what it seeks, as the NVTA estimates Northern Virginia as a whole will get approximately $95 million from the grant programs in fiscal year 2031, which will begin on July 1, 2030.
Despite the limited amount of funding that will likely be available, Fairfax County staff recommended adding a project to widen Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) from I-495 to I-66 to a list of seven projects that had previously been submitted for CMAQ and RSTP grants.
Listed in order of priority, the county has requested:
- $20 million for the planned Richmond Highway Bus Rapid Transit system
- $20 million to extend Frontier Drive from the Franconia Metro station to Loisdale Road
- $10 million for low-emission Fairfax Connector buses
- $10 million to add a cycle track on Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston
- $10 million for the second phase of Braddock Road multi-modal improvements
- $10 million to widen Leesburg Pike from I-495 to I-66 in Pimmit Hills
- $10 million to extend Town Center Parkway from Sunset Hills Road to Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston
- $720,000 to support Fairfax Connector’s six transit stores
Supervisors also voted to support funding requests from the Town of Herndon for a $1.5 million improvement project for Sterling Road and $1 million in sidewalk improvements on Locust Street.
Supervisors accept funding for pedestrian upgrades
At its Tuesday meeting, the Board of Supervisors also accepted grant funding to support three Safe Routes to School transportation upgrades:
- Sidewalks to fill in missing links along Bush Hill Drive near Bush Hill Elementary School ($1.7 million)
- Three crosswalks at Shrevewood Elementary School and a pedestrian refuge on Burke Lake Road at the entrance to Lake Braddock Secondary School ($1.05 million)
The grant funding will cover part, but not all, of each project’s costs. A local match is required to obtain the grant funds.
In addition, the county has received two federal grants totaling $7.2 million in support of three local projects.
A grant of $2.2 million will support the construction of missing walkway links along Gunston Road from Richmond Highway (Route 1) to the Mason Neck Trail.
A grant of $5 million will support a reconfiguration of Sunrise Valley Drive from the Innovation Metro station to the Fairfax County Parkway to accommodate cycling tracks and the addition of missing sidewalk links on Pohick Road between I-95 and Richmond Highway.
