INSIDE
Vienna officials mull impact of festive building lighting – Page 5
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MEDITATION CENTER HAS OPENED IN TYSONS
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‘CAPPIES’ REVIEW OF LOCAL SHOW
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FLINT HILL PLAYERS SELECTED ALL-STATE
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Editorial Letters Public Safety Transportation Real Estate Crossword Local history
WinterFest Parade
Sunday, December 6th Parade Begins at 3:30 P.M.
Pre-Parade Begins at 2:30 P.M. Old Chain Bridge Road, McLean
SunGazette www.mcleanwinterfest.org
VOLUME 37 NO. 15
DECEMBER 3-9, 2015
G R E AT FA L L S • M c L E A N • O A K T O N • T Y S O N S • V I E N N A
County Leaders Pressing VDOT on Lewinsville Road
Residents Have Voiced Concern About Growing Influx of Through-Truck Traffic BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
Residents living near Lewinsville Road in McLean can accept that the street is no longer the country route it was decades ago. But booming development in Tysons Cor-
ner and rising Dulles Toll Road charges have led to a massive influx of through-truck traffic along the road, creating conditions that neighbors decry as loud, unsafe and pavement-destroying. “Truck activity is not consistent with a residential environment,” said Susan Bartram,
president of the McLean Hunt Estates Civic Association. “When the trucks are speeding, which is often, they’re particularly noisy, intimidating and hazardous.” Stephen Matson, who lives along the road, added that a 20-foot depression developed in the pavement outside his home last spring,
CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAYS, 16th-CENTURY STYLE!
which “served as a speed bump to launch these trucks into the air.” Supported by the testimony of several residents, Fairfax County supervisors on Nov. 17 unanimously agreed to press the Virginia Department of Transportation to ban throughtruck traffic on the entire length of Lewinsville Road between Leesburg Pike (Route 7) and Dolley Madison Boulevard (Route 123). Supervisors actually passed two measures: one pertaining to the stretch of Lewinsville Road between Route 7 and Spring Hill Road and the other from Spring Hill Road east to Route 123. Board members divided up the road sections at the request of Fairfax County police, who said it would make the truck ban easier to enforce. Using one resolution for the whole street would have required police officers to follow a truck for four miles in order to secure a citation, said Irwin Auerbach, president of the Lewinsville Coalition. While residents uniformly testified in support of a truck ban on the road’s eastern section, the proposal for the western half drew dissenting comments from Sally Hack, who feared truckers instead would head down her street – Brook Road, located to the north – to Continued on Page 25
The Langley High School Choral Department will present its annual Renaissance Feaste on Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. at Capital Church. Students will transport those attending back to the 16th century, with period music and a menu that evokes what might have been on plates during the holiday season in the 1500s. For full details, see McLean/Great Falls Notes on Page 12 inside.
PHOTO BY BRIAN TROMPETER
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Once bucolic, Lewinsville Road has become more crowded with both commuter traffic (above) and truck drivers hoping to avoid congestion.
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