A heavily used but awkward intersection at the heart of Vienna’s commercial corridor could get an overhaul in the coming years.
Despite some qualms about an initial concept design, the Vienna Town Council voted unanimously at its Aug. 24 meeting to enlist an engineering firm to start work on a reconfiguration of the Church Street NW and Lawyers Road NW intersection.
The vote awarded a purchase order worth a total of $272,396, including a $25% contingency reserve, to the Baltimore-based firm Rummel, Klepper & Kahl LLP, which has been contracted by the town for on-call engineering services.
“What I envision is really getting the details, collecting data, doing the [area] survey, proposing options for the way out of the intersection,” Vienna Director of Public Works Brad Baer told the town council, adding that the process will involve gathering feedback from the public, business owners and Transportation Safety Commission.
As recommended by a Maple Avenue Multimodal Transportation and Land Use Study completed in 2019, town staff hope to determine the feasibility of a redesign that would split the existing, X-shaped intersection into two offset “T” intersections in the hopes of easing traffic congestion and improving pedestrian safety.
Given its proximity to Maple Avenue and Lawyers Road’s position as a key connection for drivers heading to and from Reston, the intersection sees “a lot of activity,” Baer noted. It has been the site of 16 reported crashes in the past three-and-a-half years based on data provided by the Vienna Police Department.
The offset T concept would eliminate through traffic on Church Street and a slip lane that lets eastbound drivers turn right from Church onto Lawyers. It would also extend the curbs to create sharper turns and realign crosswalks, reducing the distance that pedestrians need to cross.
The Maple Avenue study projected that the new design would reduce traffic delays on Church Street compared to what can be expected if nothing changes, except for westbound drivers during the afternoon rush hour, who would face 61-second waits.
While no one disputed that the intersection needs improvements, some council members expressed concern that the redesign could result in longer backups on Church Street, where maneuvering is already a challenge due to street parking along both sides.
“I see that it probably improves flow down Lawyers, and it’s probably better for pedestrians,” Councilmember Chuck Anderson said. “But for someone who lives on Church Street, if you basically reduce that to one lane, then you’re going to get stacking on Church Street, because if there’s no stop light there, it would be impossible to go across Church Street or to turn left.”
Councilmember Howard Springsteen worried that the new design would limit drivers’ ability to turn left from Lawyers onto Church Street by removing the slip lane and channeling all eastbound drivers into a single lane.
“I prefer that we take a step back and look at some other options. I’m not sold on the T,” he said. “I’m just concerned that we might affect people turning. It’s a challenging intersection, but also I really don’t want to take any property, which you say you’re not, but I have a concern that we’re going to restrict the flow of traffic in some of these areas.”
Baer stressed that the presented concept is just a rough sketch and that hiring an engineering consultant doesn’t commit the town to the offset T design.
Among other tasks, Rummel, Klepper & Kahl will collect data and conduct a full survey of the area around the intersection, evaluating the existing crosswalks, turn lanes, signage and street parking as well as property lines. The town is seeking to avoid property or right-of-way acquisitions, though that could be difficult with part of Church Street on the U.S. Post Office’s property.
The consultant will then present a more refined design that can be reassessed by the town council.
“I’m fearful that if we don’t do the preliminary work that takes place in the beginning of this design, we just will not have enough details or data to answer the kinds of questions you’re going to ask or are asking,” Baer said.
The contract requires the engineering firm to hold at least one public meeting where it’ll present its proposed improvements. Baer said staff could also schedule a time for the council to receive an update from the consultant at a work session while the evaluation is in progress.
The public works director ultimately convinced the full council, including Anderson and Springsteen, to move forward with the project.
“Pausing is just kicking the can down the road of a problem that definitely needs to be solved now,” Councilmember Dann Nash said before the vote. “It should’ve been solved a long time ago.”
“People are getting too focused on a sketch we see up there like somehow we’re voting on that,” he added. “… We’ll also have a lot more data to make better decisions than just a gut feel from looking at a sketch.”
According to the 2026-2042 Capital Improvement Plan that the town council adopted in October 2025, the Lawyers and Church reconfiguration is expected to cost $400,000, with half of the funding going toward design work and the other half going to construction.
With the support of the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, the project is being funded with money that the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority distributes to localities.
Town of Vienna staff anticipate that the project’s design will be completed in 2027, putting it on track to start construction in 2028.
