Soapstone Bridge Over Toll Road To Be Considered in 2012, Give or Take a Few Decades

The idea of extending Soapstone Road across the Toll Road to help alleviate congestion once the Wiehle Avenue Metro station is built has taken a tentative step forward. In a recent interview, Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said that a Soapstone crossing study is planned for 2012, suggesting at least a concrete start date for a process that could ultimately culminate in a bridge. Of course, this is from the county that took longer than this blog has been in existence to figure out how to pay for a sidewalk along the existing stretch of Soapstone (now slated to happen sometime in 2013), so we're not exactly holding our breath.

The idea of more Toll Road crossings is going to be critical as development and bollardy goodness come to Reston. Even the fancypants Reston Master Plan Task Force With the Unprononceable Acronym (∞), which hasn't exactly been resistant to the idea of a fanciful bollard or thousand, has argued that development a half-mile or more from the Wiehle Metro station shouldn't happen until said bridges are built. Given some major developers' somewhat questionable desire to be good stewards to date, we think it's safe to say that the bridge can't get built soon enough.

At one point, the Reston Citizens Association asked the airports authority to look into building such bridges, but they've got other problems on their hands. Anyone out there good with power tools or have a few extra 2x4s lying around?

On the bright side, the fancy "road diet" on the existing stretch of Soapstone is now slated to begin being phased in this weekend. So we may be stuck in traffic, but at least we'll be able to peel off into the dedicated suicide 7-11 turn lane and grab a Slurpee at speeds approaching Mach 3, the end.