Loudoun To Extend Pacific Blvd.

Project Is Intended To Ease Congestion

Loudoun County supervisors Tuesday approved spending $14.5 million to extend Pacific Boulevard near Route 28, a project that officials said will ease congestion on nearby Waxpool Road and improve access to dozens of businesses in the heart of the county's technology corridor.

The decision was prompted by Raytheon's announcement last week that it plans to move more than 1,500 of its workers to the AOL campus in Dulles from other offices in Northern Virginia.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to extend a 0.7-mile segment of Pacific between Dresden Street and Relocation Road, formerly known as Cedar Green Road. To fund the extension, the county will have to divert money that had been allocated to other road projects.

Supporters of the Pacific extension said it is crucial because it will allow cars to reach the AOL campus from Route 28 without using Waxpool Road, which is clogged with AOL commuters and traffic from the Ashburn area.

"This is going to unplug Waxpool," said Supervisor Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac). "This is going to impact tens of thousands of people: employees and residents."

The county will have to redirect as much as $13 million in Virginia Department of Transportation funds intended for other projects, although it will need to use only $10.5 million from that pool if its application for a $2.5 million state grant is successful. The rest of the extension's cost will be funded through a $500,000 state grant awarded to Raytheon and $1 million left from a state grant appropriated to WorldCom but not used.

Among the projects that would be put on hold are the design and construction of a pedestrian and bike trail on South King Street in Leesburg, which would lose its funding of $2 million; a paving project on Waxpool Road, which would lose $2.6 million; and a turn-lane project at Route 287 and the Route 7 Bypass, which would lose about $1.68 million.

The county chose to redirect funds from those projects because they either have not been started or are in the early stages of design, said Loudoun transportation services director Terrie Laycock. Their costs were based on rough estimates, she said, and the county would have no way of funding the projects if their final cost ended up being higher.

Moreover, the South King Street trail was intended to be built in conjunction with Leesburg's street-widening project, which is on hold because of a $10 million funding deficit.

Other road improvements that will lose funding include the design of a turn lane on Algonkian Parkway and the design for a paving project on Creamer Lane.

Laycock said it was more cost-effective to combine the funds for the projects and use them for the Pacific extension.

"It's taking funds where maybe we had money to design something and putting something together that we could actually design and build," she said.

The construction schedule for the Pacific extension is to be determined by VDOT, but Laycock said she hopes it begins within two years.

Another unfinished portion of Pacific, near Nokes Boulevard, is scheduled to be completed next month as part of the Route 28 and Nokes Boulevard interchange project. And a segment of Pacific between Severn Way and Auto World Drive is under construction and scheduled to open in fall 2010.