Completed Linton Hall Rd Interchange Relieves Traffic for Millions of Northern Virginians

A few months ago, Craig Van Lines asked the question:

Will the new Route 29 / Linton Hall Road Interchange ever be finished?

Well, we’re excited to say the answer is YES. It’s finished!

Lawmakers undertook the project in an effort to relieve a major traffic snarl that negatively impacted millions of northern Virginians. The I-66 / Route 29 Gainesville Interchange is located in one of Prince William County’s fastest growing areas, and serves as a major link from the DC metropolitan area’s outer suburbs. As new communities in Culpeper, Fauquier, Frederick, Madison, Orange, Rappahannock, Shenandoah and Warren Counties have emerged, and flourished, so too has the traffic demand on the Route 29 and I-66 corridors growing.

The solution? One of the largest construction projects in Virginia.

At the center of the now-completed Route 29/Linton Hall Road interchange is a pair of overpasses: one carrying Route 29 over the Norfolk Southern Railroad, and one carrying Linton Hall and Gallerher roads over the railroad and Route 29.

Read more, as reported by WTOP’s Max Smith:

The following text was originally published by WTOP on July 9, 2015.

Prince William County Supervisor Jeanine Lawson describes the opening as “manna from heaven.” She says former supervisor John Stirrup described the old Route 29 and railroad crossings as something like the Berlin Wall, and she agrees that it became something no one wanted to cross.

She has lived in the area for about 20 years.

Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne also attended the ribbon cutting, and pointed to the impact that clearing up the backups onto I-66 can have on the larger regional traffic flow.

“This eliminates the at-grade railroad crossing … safety has been improved, and in this rapidly growing area its unlocking the stop-and-go traffic on [Route 29 and Linton Hall Rd],” he says.

State Sen. Dick Black gave an anecdote about being in the car with kids before the changes — when the kids would start counting the number of freight cars going by.

“And then, about that time, the train stops and backs up and you start counting all over again,” he says. “You know what that does to traffic congestion.”

Also, the changes leave room for Norfolk Southern to add another track under the overpasses that could not only help with freight congestion, but also could provide extra track slots if VRE service is extended to Gainesville and Haymarket.

And for what it’s worth…

These northern Virginia roofers are relieved.

Life in northern Virginia is nothing without traffic, but the hard work that VDOT and Prince William County have endured to make Gainesville a little easier to navigate has not gone unnoticed.