A Bridge Not Quite Too Far: Soapstone Bridge Alignment Proposed, $2.5 Million Down, Only $89.25 Million to Go

Our BFFs at Reston2020 point out that Fairfax County's transportation staff has made a recommendation for the location of the long-discussed Soapstone bridge that will swoop gracefully across the Toll Road, bringing South Restonians from Soapstone to a fancy new intersection just east of Plaza America on Sunset Hills, potentially increasing average speeds on the emergency runs to Michaels for additional scrapbooking supplies to near Mach 2. The maps on the county's Powerpoint presentation were almost impossible to read, so at considerable personal expense we hired a cartographer to create this lovely annotated rendering:


You're welcome.

In their proposal, county planners also changed the initial proposal for a four-lane bridge to a two-lane bridge, with additional bike lanes going in each direction and a "shared use trail," which just sounds like a great way to ensure lots of collisions between spandex-clad cyclists, power walkers, and overcaffeinated wage slaves trudging to the Metro. But that's why we're filthy "web loggers" and not civil engineers.

Also, buried deep in the powerpoint is some v. v. exciting news: A "four-legged unsignalized intersection or roundabout" would be created between Sunrise Valley and the Toll Road. Could Reston be getting its very first traffic circle? Will it look like this?

We can only hope.

The proposal would impact three properties on the north side of the Toll Road -- Solus LLC, Musica LLC and ISTAR CTL LLC. On the south side of the Toll Road, the road would run through the National Association of Secondary School Principals, BDC Sunrise Valley LLC, and KM Stonecroft LLC. The extension is also envisioned as connecting to an extended Reston Station Boulevard and additional bike paths, assuming those are eventually funded.

The proposal goes next to the board of supervisors for approval, then moves on to preliminary engineering. Assuming all goes well, it will then be added to the "Financially Constrained Long Range Transportation Plan," a bureaucratic jumble that more than hints at the likelihood of its speedy construction.

And there's the rub: While $2.5 million has been approved for the next phases of work, the complete project is estimated to cost $91.75 million. It is one of three new Toll Road crossings placed on a $4 billion high-priority list by county supervisors. (The other two are an underpass near Town Center Parkway and an overpass at South Lake Drive.) Of that $4 billion, $1.4 billion is anticipated through 2020 to "get the work going," according to our BFFs at Reston Now.

Now that the county supervisors have approved the master plan changes that will create the bollardy goodness that will require all this additional infrastructure, it's on them to make sure that the funding to pay for it is secured. And it's on us to make sure that they make sure that happens.