With a recently awarded grant, Fairfax County can begin designing protected bicycle facilities along Sunrise Valley Drive near the Innovation Center Metro station, the latest effort to make the roadway more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists.
At its Nov. 19 meeting, the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) unanimously approved $84,000 for the Sunrise Valley Drive Protected Bicycle Infrastructure project as part of its fiscal year 2026-2027 Transit Within Reach program.
Intended to assist localities with preliminary design and engineering work, the Transit Within Reach grants specifically go toward projects that will add or enhance walking and bicycle access to transit stations.
The Sunrise Valley Drive project will look at adding bike facilities on an approximately 1.5-mile stretch of road from the Innovation Center station entrance near Carta Way to Frying Pan Road, linking to existing bike lanes and shared-use paths in the McNair area south of Herndon.
While Fairfax County hasn’t determined what kind of infrastructure to install yet, the project is expected to improve “connections between the Metro and numerous medium and high-density housing developments, restaurants, shops, hotels, parks and trails,” TPB Transportation Planner and Grant Program Manager Victoria Caudullo said at the Nov. 19 meeting.
TPB staff also recommended supporting a shared-use path on Lockwood Drive in Montgomery County, Maryland, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Lewis Avenue in Rockville, bringing the total amount of Transit Within Reach funding for FY 2026-2027 up to $250,000.
“We believe these are very practical projects at this time,” Caudullo told the board, adding that if the recommendations are approved, she would immediately start identifying technical consultants for the projects so they could potentially “launch in early 2026.”
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who currently chairs the TPB, observed that “probably all” of the D.C.-area localities represented on the board face challenges with “retrofitting our transportation infrastructure to accommodate” bicyclists and pedestrians.
“This is a huge issue, and projects like these definitely help,” he said before the vote.
For the Sunrise Valley project, the grant funding will go toward a traffic study focused on the impacts of removing a vehicular travel lane and a 30% conceptual design for the roadway’s reconfiguration.
The traffic study and initial design are expected to take about a year to complete, Fairfax County Department of Transportation spokesperson Benjamin Boxer says. After that, county staff will have a clearer picture of what the final improvements will look like, how much they might cost and when construction could begin.
“Protected bicycle infrastructure allows for higher bicycle and e-scooter speeds along a corridor,” FCDOT Active Transportation Section Chief Laura Ghosh said in a statement to FFXnow. “These facilities are integral to increasing ridership and reducing vehicle trips by creating a safer and more comfortable environment for everyone along the road.”
FCDOT is also continuing to make progress on plans to add bicycle and pedestrian facilities on other sections of Sunrise Valley Drive.
Design work is underway on the first phase of cycle tracks — dedicated off-street bike lanes — that will ultimately connect Carta Way in Herndon to Edmund Halley Drive in Reston. The middle segment between Monroe Street and Fairfax County Parkway will be delivered first.
The current estimated cost for the project is $32.4 million, according to a November update from the Virginia Department of Transportation.
“The county will be meeting soon with VDOT and the design consultant to review the plans,” Boxer said. “The site survey is also in progress.”
FCDOT also anticipates gearing up for construction soon on a walkway project along Sunrise Valley Drive from Reston Parkway to Soapstone Drive. Costing approximately $4.5 million, the project will improve existing pedestrian walkways and fill in a missing 1,500-foot link on the north side of Sunrise Valley.
The county expects to start accepting bids for construction contractors this month, enabling work to start in January after Dominion Energy finishes relocating utilities, FCDOT said in a November status report. If the schedule stays on track, construction would finish in fall 2026.
