Woe Unto Tysons Commuters

Some of those traffic-reduction measures have been used with great success elsewhere, notably in Arlington County, but Fairfax officials and employers have little experience with them. Officials are trying to determine which measures would be most useful, since implementing every action on the list would cost about $175 million, far more than the state can afford. Advocates of building the rail line below ground have invoked that cost as a point for a tunnel, although skeptics counter that a tunnel would cause much disruption too, involving hundreds of trucks hauling away dirt.

Joan Morris, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the agency would employ many of the strategies it used recently for work at the Springfield interchange and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, including keeping a large "incident command vehicle" near the work zone at all times to deal with accidents.

"It's like having a huge party in your house as you're renovating it at same time," she said of coordinating the work and traffic.

But officials said the challenge was even bigger at Tysons, because drivers can't simply be encouraged to take other routes -- they need to get to the stores and offices adjacent to the work sites. This is particularly important given that Tysons companies are paying for a tenth of the $4 billion project, project spokeswoman Marcia McAllister said. Not to mention that Tysons businesses provide millions of dollars of tax revenue.

"This project is different . . . because we can't divert traffic," she said. "If we make it so people can't get in or out during construction, [the landowners] aren't going to be very happy."

Minimizing disruption is also a priority of the owners of Tysons Corner Center, Macerich Co. of California. "We take it very seriously," said the mall's general manager, Charles Cope. "We can't interfere with this shopping center. It's got to continue to prosper. We can't strangle it."

Whether such efforts convince Tysons-area shoppers remains to be seen. Marcy Kelly, a Vienna life coach who arrived at the Galleria mall earlier this week for a monthly business networking meeting, said she would probably do more of her shopping in Reston once all the construction gets underway.

"I get confused and turned around here anyway," she said.