Looks like they are finally widening the road there. Is it going to be two lanes on each side? Sucks for those houses right there. Looks like the road will be their backyard.

I am glad they are finally doing it :)

Yes, I believe it is the Prince William County commuter cut-thru relief act that is paying for it... not really - it was a Fairfax County taxpayer bond referendum. Anyway, more details here:

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/468730/468730.html

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/579276/579296.html

http://centreville.patch.com/articles/portion-of-poplar-tree-rd-to-be-closed-off-temporarily

Thanks for the info... One of the articles mentioned that they will be closing that whole stretch once school is out to reopen in the Fall! WOW. That means everyone will be cutting through the Sully neighborhoods to get across...

ghgh Wrote:
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> ...That means everyone will be cutting through
> the Sully neighborhoods to get across...


Nah - people can drive from Westfield Blvd/Poplar Tree to Sully Park Drive. turn right, then turn left at the light onto Braddock, then right on Stone Road - and the other way for the other way...just a mini-dog-leg.

I think the traffic backup is going to be amazing, though, but there isn't a need to drive through neighborhoods otherwise since there are a gajillion stop signs that would slow that down too much (nee Sequoia Farms Drive). Instead, I think folks will divert completely via 28/29.


<a href="http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=38.859794,-77.45151&spn=0.031212,0.040941&z=15&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:

Should have noted that the only part of the road being closed is that stretch on Poplar Tree from Sully Park Drive to Braddock Road - NOT the entire Poplar Tree stretch (name changes right and left - Westfield/Poplar Tree/Stone); see the map above.

So now that they actually closed off the portion of Poplar Tree between Sully Park and Braddock that needed to be totally closed, they also force the merge from two lanes on Westfields after Stonecroft but before the light at Sully Station/Sequoia Farms instead of allowing both lanes to merge at the previous merge point on Poplar Tree (changes from Westfields to Poplar Tree at that light). Anybody got any idea why they did this? I think it was to try to move the bottleneck up in an attempt to keep people from cutting through the neighborhoods but I don't know for sure. It creates a worse situation now because there is absolutely no cut-around option BEFORE the bottleneck. Everybody merging off of 28 and Stonecroft are being forced into one lane almost immediately, it's a total nightmare. And, BTW, I live in Sully II just off of Sully Park and work in Herndon so I gotta take this route.

I sort of assumed they want all the merging done before the cars reach the initial construction area. But it seemed to me they could have waited to cut down that lane until later in the project. Also liked how they waited to put up the detour signs with directional arrows until a a couple of weeks after the road was closed. Cars driving all over the Braddock Ridge neighborhoods trying to find a way out the first week.

Took a couple of photos today of the work. They only have 56 more days to get this section completed if they want to re-open by the time school starts...
Attachments:

Same section - opposite direction.
Attachments:

Went by there a couple days last week and not a soul there,probably the same shitty minority owned company that took almost a year to to put the turn lanes in at Braddock ridge a few years ago.

just wait till Labor Day, HA! Wrote:
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> Went by there a couple days last week and not a
> soul there

Rain stops everything.

Sully Wrote:
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> just wait till Labor Day, HA! Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Went by there a couple days last week and not a
> > soul there
>
> Rain stops everything.


Apparently so does good weather on Vdot projects

It is my understanding that the work got bogged down due to a utility relocation issue, but that it should be resolved in the next week and you will see more activity. Also, the merge on Westfields Boulevard is due to the work that will take place just past the Sully Station Drive/Sequoia Farms Drive intersection, and so the merge to one lane needs to begin sooner (if you drive through that area you'll see that the one lane of asphalt has been removed).

It is a fortune that it is only one mile they are widening. According to VDOT they should finish by December 2011. Six months for a mile (they started in June). I wonder how long they would delay for a 100 miles

Ok so I drive by there yesterday and there are 4, yes 4 fucking workers there.(2 actually working} You really got to be fucking kidding me, When I called about the downed stop sign on my street there were 4 guys working on getting it back up.Fortunately I dont drive there during peak hours so the angry commuters cant see that while they are at work and have to sit in that shit to get home that nobody is really doing a fucking thing to get the project finished.It looks like the same shitty minority owned business got that contract that took a year to put a fucking turn lane from Poplar Tree onto Braddick ridge.What a travesty.

Lu Wrote:
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> It is a fortune that it is only one mile they are
> widening. According to VDOT they should finish by
> December 2011. Six months for a mile (they started
> in June). I wonder how long they would delay for a
> 100 miles


That's twice as fast a the Route 50 widening is projecting to take!

(3 years for 3 miles, so 1 mile per year)

This will never get finished... Terribl communte home.

Just an update for anyone who is adding another 20 minutes to an already ugly commute. Today at 1 PM there were zero , yes 0 workers on site , There was one guy sitting in a pickup truck.Lets see, today it was 70 degress partly cloudy. When the weather turns bad soon how many workers will be out there ?? What gives VDOT?.

Looks like one of the workers got back from vacation (or out of jail), there were 5 men, working? Three with shovels, one standing around, one on a piece of machinery.Looks like a long commute this winter.

HURRY THE FUCK UP AND FINISH. i think we have paid enough tax dollars.

If we have a mild and precipitation free winter it could be done by mid Feb. Odds are it'll be close to the end of march or early April.

Of course, if there are a couple of bad storms that shit won't be done till may.

Not bad, a year and a half to 4 lane one mile of road. Now they are building a retaining wall at about 5 feet a day, unreal. Couldnt have possibly done that last summer when the whole road was closed.

What a nice weather day yesterday was, a good day to be completing a road that thousands use daily. But alas, no one was working on the Poplar Tree autobahn. A few fence posts were put in for the new sound barrier but no road work. At least if the weather was crappy there would be an excuse. I guess after the finally paving( whenever that actually occurs) we can wait another month to get the stripes painted. UFB

Honestly, it's not too bad nowadays. People are avoiding this cut-through, some still even using Old Lee to get from Stonecroft to points beyond Poplar. Since people think it's so bad, I've been zipping from Stonecroft to Braddock in like ten minutes. I bet once it's done everybody will be wishing it was still under construction. The thing that pisses me off is now everyone got used to the right lane ending, and now it's the left, so people be all "GTFO mah way biatch" and killing each other over 2 feet of merge area. Stupid bastards.

Any idea how much longer everyone will be sitting burning $4 a gallon fossil fuel since this stretch of road cant seemingly be opened. I had to laugh, the entire length of Sully Park Dr was milled, paved and painted in 3 days. Must be another firm contracted at that site.

The Westfield's Expressway is OPEN. Only took them 3/4 of a year to pave 1 mile, way to go VDOT!

Love this new section of the road. So much easier commuting home at night.

Now they need to re-time the lights @Sequoia Farms and Stonecroft so more than 5 cars get through on a cycle.

Finally Wrote:
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> Now they need to re-time the lights @Sequoia Farms
> and Stonecroft so more than 5 cars get through on
> a cycle.

Looks like they did a major retiming of the lights for the main flow direction - quite long relative to before. Traffic from Stonecroft and Sequoia Farms onto Westfield, of course, doesn't get much because of this.

[All street names above are used for simplicity, in fact, the street names change depending upon where on the same surface you happen to be...]

Westfields Boulevard between Braddock Road and Sully Station/Sequoia Farms:

What's with the speed limit being changed to 45 mph in one direction of travel but remaining 35 in the other direction? It's a residential neighborhood with school kid walkers and trails/sidewalks on both sides. Makes no sense at all to me. Should stay at 35 both ways. Or at least be the same on both.

Three years after this road widening - has everyone noticed how traffic on Westfields Blvd/Stone Road between 28-29 is so incredibly much better now?

Wrong. Predictably, traffic is not one iota better - in fact, it is arguably worse now than before. Truly a colossal waste of taxpayer money and once again proves the point that road widening fixes nothing in the long term.

Although it is an area with students, I still drove 45mph down that street when there was a 35mph sign. I think both sides should stay that speed unless those 25 mph signs flash during school start/end times.
Kinda like Braddock Rd. The speeds 45 mph, and then near that Trinity School, the 25 mph thing flashes and everyone slows down.

Why the heck did they not place any lamp posts down that street? I was hoping they would. Even Stone Road from Lee highway all the way up to this street is dark.