Leesburg Breaks Ground on Road Extension

By Cara McCoy

Originally published at 2:31 p.m., January 24, 2008
Updated at 6:47 p.m., January 24, 2008

The Virginia Department of Transportation and Leesburg town officials broke ground Thursday on an extension of Battlefield Parkway, a $35 million project that will provide residents and businesses in southeast Leesburg with easier access to Route 7.

Construction on the project, which will link Kincaid Boulevard and Route 7, should begin next week. The new section is scheduled to open to traffic on Sept. 4, 2009.

In addition to providing a way for motorists to avoid the Route 15 Bypass, which handles about 70,000 vehicles a day, the seven-tenths of a mile extension will provide easier access to the Dulles Greenway, Leesburg Executive Airport and residential areas.

"This should do more to relieve congestion in Leesburg than any project we've seen, probably since the bypass was built decades ago," Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd said at a Thursday news conference. This part of Battlefield Parkway is a key section of the six-mile U-shaped road that was designed in 1986 as an alternative to Route 15.

VDOT, Dulles-based Shirley Contracting and the Town of Leesburg have partnered on the project. The new section of road will have four lanes that can be widened to six lanes, if needed.

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Battlefield Parkway Extension

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Officials break ground on the Battlefield Parkway extension Thursday morning. From left: John Drury, citizen-activist and neighborhood resident; council member Ken Reid; Brendan Pevarski, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.); Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattdt; council member Kathryn Sheldon Hammler; Supervisor Kelly Burk; council member Kevin Wright; VDOT district administrator Morteza Salehi; VDOT program manager Susan Shaw; Jeff Austin, Shirley Design/Build LLC project manager. (Cara McCoy)

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The $35 million extension of Battlefield Parkway will link Kincaid Boulevard and Route 7. (Cara McCoy)

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Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd addresses those who gathered at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Battlefield Parkway extension Thursday morning. The section of road will connect Kincaid Boulevard to Route 7. (Cara McCoy)

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Virginia Department of Transportation engineer Susan Shaw explains some of the details of the Battlefield Parkway extension. At left is Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd. (Cara McCoy)

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Leesburg Town Councilwoman Kathryn Sheldon Hammler puts on her hardhat before digging dirt at the ground-breaking of the Battlefield Parkway extension. (Cara McCoy)

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This is the bridge on Lawson Road, which motorists now take to get to Route 7. (Cara McCoy)

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A bus crosses the dirt bridge over Tuscarora Creek. After the Battlefield Parkway extension is completed in 2009, the Virginia Department of Transportation will likely close this part of Lawson Road. (Cara McCoy)

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Susan Shaw, the VDOT engineer in charge of the road extension, said the project includes bridges, a pedestrian path and sound walls.

"While it's a short section (of Battlefield Parkway), it's not one without some significant and costly features," Shaw said. "About one-third of the project will be on structures."

Those structures include bridges over Tuscarora Creek and the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.

Plans also include a 10-foot-wide path along Kincaid Boulevard, noise barriers and retaining walls in the Kincaid Forest neighborhood.

Shaw said that after construction begins next week, traffic likely will be affected on Kincaid Boulevard and at the intersection of Battlefield Parkway and Route 7.

Officials estimated that by 2030, this section of Battlefield Parkway will carry 27,500 vehicles per day.

Umstattd said after the project is complete, plans include a Sycolin Road flyover that would eliminate the need for a traffic light at the Route 15 Bypass.

U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) helped secure more than $10 million in federal funds for the project. He wasn't able to attend Thursday's groundbreaking because of a hearing on the Dulles rail extension; however, Brendan Pevarski, a Wolf spokesman, read a letter in which Wolf lauded "the Town Council, VDOT and state legislators, who have all come together and worked hard to make this project happen."

The Town of Leesburg worked with VDOT and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to finance the project. The Federal Highway Administration also contributed funding.

"This is almost an unprecedented era of federal, regional and local cooperation in transportation planning and funding that I don't think we've had before," Umstattd said.

Residents said the extension is important to their neighborhood.

Motorists who need to get from Sycolin Road to Route 7 now take a one-lane dirt bridge on Lawson Road, which passes through a creek that frequently floods.

"The road here was never meant for the traffic it's carrying – and it's dangerous," said Lawson Road resident John Drury, who has been petitioning VDOT and the Town Council for years to build the road.

Leesburg Town Councilman Kenneth Reid, who lives on nearby Tavistock Drive, said the congestion on Lawson Road is dangerous, especially because there are children who play in the area.

"It has to be closed immediately -- but VDOT will not allow it to be closed, or the town, until this is built," he said. "So we have this whole neighborhood behind here that's desperate for this."

Tagged: Battlefield Parkway, Leesburg, Route 15, transportation, VDOT

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