Break out the reflective vests and get ready to take the kids to get their pictures with Work Zone Willy: it’s repaving season in Fairfax County.
This year, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) are planning various changes for roads around the county, from multiple road diets to crosswalks and bicycle lanes.
Starting this Friday (April 7), FCDOT will host a series of virtual meetings over the next month — most of them in the next week — to discuss the specifics of the upcoming road reconfigurations. All of the meetings will start at 7 p.m.
- April 7: Sully and Dranesville Districts
- April 8: Hunter Mill, Providence and Braddock Districts
- April 9: Mount Vernon District
- April 10: Franconia District
- April 21: Springfield and Mason Districts
VDOT coordinates with FCDOT to use its annual road repaving and striping program as an opportunity for implementing limited pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
For the 2025 program, road diets are planned for:
- Annandale Road in the Mason District
- Huntington Avenue in Mount Vernon
- Metrotech Drive in Chantilly
- Piney Branch Road in Springfield
The Annandale Road road diet will take the street from four to two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction, with bike lanes on both sides of the street and a center turn lane.
The Huntington Avenue road diet will replace the four lanes of vehicle traffic with two lanes and buffered bike lanes between Richmond Highway and Telegraph Road, as well as a center turn lane between Farrington Avenue and Hunting Creek Road.
There is no information yet on what the Metrotech Drive or Piney Branch Road diets will entail. A meeting discussing the Metrotech Drive project is scheduled for Monday, April 7, and a meeting on the Piney Branch Road diet is scheduled for Monday, April 21.
According to FCDOT, there are also plans to add bicycle lanes and crosswalk improvements on Dellwood Drive near the Vienna Metro Station in Oakton, along with four streets in the Franconia District:
- Vantage Drive from South Kings Highway to Rolling Stone Way
- Bedrock Road from Green Spring Lane to Harrison Lane
- Rolling Stone Way from Vantage Drive to Bedrock Road
- Kingstowne Commons Drive
Details of paving and striping projects planned in the Mount Vernon District haven’t been released yet, as of press time, but FCDOT says on its website that the focus will be on “potential crosswalk improvements.”
A VDOT representative told FFXnow that no timeframes are available for the work beyond the March-November ‘season’ for paving.
“Contractors are allowed flexibility (as long as they give proper notifications for parking, etc.) as weather, personnel scheduling, and equipment maintenance can all vary during the paving season,” VDOT said.
On its website, FCDOT says exact work dates will be available approximately 10 days before the start of work, and “no parking” signs will be posted at least three business days prior to work starting.
According to the website:
- Residents can expect work vehicles in their neighborhood during the project.
- Motorists are asked to be alert to temporary traffic patterns. Cars, basketball hoops or garbage cans may need to be temporarily relocated while work is under way.
- Work hours are usually limited to outside of rush hours. Crews typically work on neighborhood streets weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- On other roads such as interstates and some primaries, work may occur overnight.
Photo via Michael Evans/Unsplash
