A plan to add bike lanes and reconfigure part of Huntington Avenue in the Mount Vernon District has come to a halt without a clear path forward.
The project, which was a joint effort of Virginia’s Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT), has stalled after multiple years of planning, both agencies told FFXnow.
FCDOT attributes the decision not to move forward with bicycle lanes on an approximately 1-mile stretch of roadway to VDOT.
“VDOT cited the need for more in-depth operational analysis and that the scope of the work needed would extend beyond the limits of their standard repaving program,” FCDOT spokesperson Benjamin Boxer said.
VDOT, however, says the proposal put forth by county officials ultimately didn’t meet the criteria for its annual repaving program, with FCDOT failing to provide a complete operational analysis of the road.
“We made a good faith effort two years in a row to defer the paving of this,” VDOT Northern Virginia spokesperson Ellen Kamilakis said. “We couldn’t just keep waiting.”
The proposed approach would have reconfigured the four driving lanes on Huntington Avenue between Telegraph Road and Richmond Highway, removing one from each side and installing a center left-turn lane.
The remaining space would have been used to add two bike lanes — one traveling in each direction — as well as buffer zones that separate cyclists from traffic.
But the planned changes could only be implemented through a capital improvement project, not with the annual repaving program, according to Kamilakis.
“The number one requirement for the repaving is that it can’t be making structural changes to the roadway,” she said, noting that modifying traffic signals and removing lanes are immediate disqualifiers.
According to a survey conducted by FCDOT on the possibility of a Huntington Avenue road diet, 67% of respondents felt either “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” walking across the road in its current configuration.
For cyclists, roughly 59% of respondents conveyed that fear. Further, more than 50% of respondents said they would both walk and bike on or across Huntington Avenue if conditions on the roadway were improved.
Ultimately, 53% of the survey’s respondents were in favor of the proposed changes, with an additional 21% feeling “neutral.”
Given the overall support for the road diet shown in the survey, at least some Huntington residents were “outraged” to learn that the project has been canceled with no public notice, according to a brief press release shared with FFXnow.
“We fought for this for years,” an unnamed resident said. “We did everything we were supposed to do — gave feedback, showed up, supported the plan — and the county still pulled the rug out from under us.”
FCDOT says it’s now developing an alternative plan for safety improvements on Huntington Avenue that the county could implement on its own.
“Fairfax County is still committed to the project,” Boxer said. “FCDOT staff are currently exploring a stand-alone capital improvement effort and are developing the scope of work for the project.”
There is no established timeline for the broader project, he added.
According to Kamilakis, Huntington Avenue is currently in the process of undergoing regularly scheduled repaving — albeit with no changes to the configuration of the roadway itself.
