Roads

BYPASS FOR 267: NEW ROADS LEADING INTO ASHBURN PLANNED

The new roads are related to a massive new development coming to eastern Loudoun.

A new alternative route to the Greenway is coming, and developers are paying for most of it. That’s the headline after local leaders announced details of a massive new neighborhood development coming to eastern Loudoun County.

The development is known as the Silver District West and it will be located on the eastern and western sides of Loudoun County Parkway, south of 267. As part of the deal, developers and other parties will be responsible for building new roads in the area that impact us all.

Here’s a look at what’s coming:

 

Expansion of Shellhorn (red dots): Shellhorn Road currently runs parallel to the Greenway, past Loudoun Station and dead ends at Loudoun County Parkway. But in the next few years, Shellhorn will continue eastward and connect down near Old Ox Road, the new Sterling metro station and the current park-and-ride lot. (Picture the back way to Lifetime Fitness, if you know what we mean.) It will actually meet up with the expansion of Sterling Boulevard coming from the east.

Construction of Barrister across 267 (blue dots): Barrister Street is currently a short dead end road next to the Inova Emergency Room and HealthPlex at 267 and Loudoun County Parkway. But eventually, it will be extended and arc north across 267. (That’s what the strange cement wall is doing in the middle of the Greenway. See our story here.) Barrister will continue on the north side of 267 and meet up with the newly expanded Shellhorn Road. (Eventually Barrister should extend even further north to meet up with more roads, creating more north-south options.)

Widening of Loudoun County Parkway (yellow dots): Also announced, Loudoun County Parkway will be widened from two lanes to three lanes in each direction, from Ryan Road in the south to Shellhorn in the north. Numerous stop-and-go lights will be added as well for traffic control at new, wider intersections.

County Supervisors Ron Meyer and Matt Letourneau led the negotiations on the deals, which will speed up the time table for these road improvements. Altogether, developers will be responsible for more than $84 million towards the tab.

(NOTE: All of our dotted maps are rough examples of the routes, created to be easy to follow. Please see county documents for the precise plans.)

(Image at top: Wendy Seltzer, via Flickr)(License)

12 Comments
  1. Paul 5 years ago

    The news regarding Shellhorn is great, but is only a partial solution. The reason so many people take the Greenway that live in the AshburnBroadlands area is that there is only one way off the Toll road to get to all these expanded roads to Ashburn…and that is the disaster of Rt 28. The bottom lines remains that all Toll road traffic that want to use these new connections must get off and be funneled down to one lane to get on 28. Only once on 28 can you take Old Ox to the new Shellhorn, etc.

    The route 28 exit off the Toll Road is part of the problem!

  2. Paul 5 years ago

    The news regarding Shellhorn is great, but is only a partial solution. The reason so many people take the Greenway that live in the Ashburn\Broadlands area is that there is only one way off the Toll road to get to all these expanded roads to Ashburn…and that is the disaster of Rt 28. The bottom lines remains that all Toll road traffic that want to use these new connections must get off and be funneled down to one lane to get on 28. Only once on 28 can you take Old Ox to the new Shellhorn, etc.

    The route 28 exit off the Toll Road is part of the problem!

  3. Kt 5 years ago

    This is after 3 years. Sometime after 2023 looks like. County should have negotiated a 2021 deadline.

  4. John 5 years ago

    The Shellhorn extension is badly needed, but I hope it’s big enough. Pretty much everyone in South Broadlands, Brambleton, and Loudoun Valley will shift to this route from Waxpool. It also could cause an even bigger mess on Old Ox when it merges in there. (Note: your map above shows it coming into Sterling Blvd, not Old Ox. They’d have to bulldoze a lot of buildings for that to happen.)

    Still, a 6th crossing of Broad Run will be a help. Not that long ago there were only four: Rt 7, Waxpool, Greenway, and Rt 50. Adding a 5th at Gloucester took a bunch of cars off Waxpool and drastically improved traffic there.

    I’m worried about the LCP Expansion. Again, the additional lane is badly needed, but when they add a bunch of lights in there, it will take just as long if not longer to get through that area.

  5. Anne 5 years ago

    Thanks for the enlarged (dotted) maps! After reading the county information was trying to trace these routes on my tiny road atlas, which was nearly impossible. Again, great reporting on all things in/around Ashburn.

  6. Rob Blackstone 5 years ago

    The red dots on the first map don’t make any sense.

    There is a solid wall of buildings from Lockridge to the Pacific/Sterling Blvd intersection. Are they planning on demolishing them or building a giant sky way over top of them? I’m looking at the Google satellite view and don’t see how they could possibly squeeze in a road through there.

    • The Burn 5 years ago

      From the article: “NOTE: All of our dotted maps are rough examples of the routes, created to be easy to follow. Please see county documents for the precise plans.”
      The version in one county map shows the route cutting up Moran a bit more and then heading southeast to meet Sterling.

  7. Mark 5 years ago

    They certainly are going to have to demolish some buildings or have an incredible curvy road to extend Sterling Blvd west of 28.

    The Shellhorn Extension is badly needed, but as others have said it is going to cause a nightmare along 606 and 28. Assuming say three traffic lights on the new Shellhorn to go from Brambleton to the Toll Road avoiding the Greenway would be at least 13 traffic lights if not a number more. As it is now the new intersection at Clairborne and Ryan Rd. adds a ton of time leaving Brambleton because of how poorly timed that light is (I sit at it forever while one car on Claiborne gets a very long light even though there is no traffic along it).

    What the real shame is we have a perfectly good highway that should be able to be used by everyone, but it is priced way too high especially for those coming from Ashburn/Brambleton/LVE/Moorefield by having to pay the same toll rate that drivers from Leesburg pay because there is no distance based tolling. I understand why the state tried the model of a private built/funded toll road, but to me it is a massive failure when you have people paying $400-$600 a month in tolls.

    • The Burn 5 years ago

      The version in one county map shows the route cutting up Moran a bit more and then heading southeast to meet Sterling.

  8. Steve 5 years ago

    Just wondering if the money allocated for all this road work would have been better spent paying off Greenway owners to move the toll plaza from its current location to just after Loudoun Parkway. So coming from Reston, you would not pay a toll until after the Parkway. This eliminates having to exit onto 28, then working your way up the new roads to get to the Parkway. As previous commenter stated, exiting onto 28 is a problem. With the modern overhead electronic toll collection method, I would think taking down the current toll plaza and installing an overhead system down the road would not be too much.

  9. John 5 years ago

    Sterling Blvd will be extended to Randolph. Randolph/Lockridge/Moran will be realigned to line up the extended Sterling. Shellhorn will be extended from Loudoun County Parkway to Lockridge.

    Traffic from Sterling Blvd. at 28 will be able to get to Shellhorn and Loudoun County Parkway WITHOUT going on 606.

    The details are in the country transportation plan:

    https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/70764/CTP-Amended-3-6-18?bidId=

    Map here:

    https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/70765/CTP-Countywide-Map-Amended-3-6-2018?bidId=

    Details on the Shellhorn extension, which also mentions how they will connect: https://thenovaauthority.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PDF-Loudoun-Extend-Shellhorn-Road.pdf

    “This project entails constructing a continuous east-west corridor of Shellhorn Rd (VA 643) to Sterling Boulevard (VA 846) between Loudoun County Parkway (VA 607) and Pacific Boulevard. The multimodal corridor is planned to include an urban 4-lane road within 120 feet of right of way. The project includes 1 roundabout, 2 new signalized intersections, and 2 signal modifications. The project will extend Shellhorn Road from Loudoun County Parkway to Lockridge Road. This new 1 mile
    long, major collector road is planned to have a roundabout at its eastern terminus on Lockridge Road. The project will reconstruct 0.8 miles of Lockridge Road from Prentice Drive to Moran Road and realign Lockridge Road to tie into the planned Sterling Boulevard Extension from Pacific Boulevard. Randolph Drive will also be realigned to be a continuous north-south road that’ll connect Old Ox Road to Prentice Drive.”

    • Ashburn Resident 5 years ago

      Thanks for the details John

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