The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) approved grants this week for a suite of projects, including two in Fairfax County aimed at improving pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
The projects, approved at a meeting on Wednesday (May 21), include major improvements for Tysons and Annandale.
The first project being considered was $100,000 for the Westpark Drive Safety Project, which will support the design of protected bicycle lanes from the Tysons Metro station’s northern entrance to a future trail on Route 7 (Leesburg Pike).
Westpark Drive currently only has some segments with on-road, unprotected bicycle lanes.
The Virginia Department of Transportation completed shared-use paths along Route 7 last year, as part of a project to widen the roadway from Riva Ridge Drive in Reston to Jarrett Valley Drive in Tysons. However, some gaps in the trail remain in Tysons between the Dulles Toll Road and Gallows Road, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) National Capital Trail Network.
“This design project will advance the bicycle master plan through a traffic study and 30% design,” TPB staff said of the Westpark safety project.
Fairfax County also applied for funds from the Transportation Land-Use Connections (TLC) Program to make improvements to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail crossing at Gallows Road and pedestrian crossings on Reston Parkway.
However, with only $440,000 available for the entire D.C. region, TPB staff had to pick and choose which projects to prioritize with their recommendations.
Fairfax County will also receive funding from a separate grant program for a series of pedestrian improvements to Tom Davis Drive in Annandale.
The $80,000 Regional Roadway Safety Program grant will go to support a traffic calming project that will add protected bike lanes, painted meanders, and chicanes for improved pedestrian and cyclist safety.
Staff noted that the street connects Little River Turnpike and Columbia Pike, two major traffic corridors.
“This census tract has the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities in Fairfax County,” staff said.
Fairfax County is also working with the local community and businesses on plans to paint a mural on Tom Davis Drive. The project will “create a culturally relevant sense of place and supplement the project’s traffic safety improvements,” according to a TPB staff report.
The county’s Community Revitalization Section staff applied for a $100,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies earlier this year to help fund the mural, per the section’s annual report for 2024.
The Transportation Planning Board, which is staffed by COG and helps coordinate transportation projects across the D.C. region, unanimously approved both the Westpark and Tom Davis Drive grants.
