Plans In Place for Extended Rt. 9 Eastbound Ramp onto Rt. 7

BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.com

Loudoun supervisors on Tuesday approved plans to extend Rt. 9’s ramp onto eastbound Rt. 7, a project expected to help with morning rush-hour backups at the interchange.

The Virginia Department of Transportation’s previous Route 7 Truck Climbing Lane Project, which completed in October 2015, constructed a third westbound lane from Leesburg to Rt. 9; built new acceleration and deceleration lanes; built two new roundabouts where the ramps from Rt. 7 meet Rt. 9, Colonial Highway and Dry Mill Road; and relocated the W&OD Trail through the Rt. 9 interchange.

But the project did not include any improvements to eastbound Rt. 7. After that work, VDOT launched a Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions, or STARS, study, which was complete in 2017. That study recommended improvements at the Rt. 9 roundabouts and extending the acceleration lane onto east-

LCSO reorganized

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Division, major of the Administrative and Technical Services Division, captain of the Criminal Investigations Division, and 1st lieutenant in the Field Operations Division.

Lee joined the Sheriff ’s Office last year after 29 years of service with the Fairfax County Police Department, and oversees the Administrative and Corrections Bureau. During his tenure with Fairfax, he commanded patrol, major crimes, and in- bound Rt. 7. Supervisors have approved plans to extend the acceleration lane by approximately 650 feet. The county expects to fund about $2.2 million of that project’s $2.7 million cost.

Another of the study’s recommendations, an extended merge from westbound Rt. 7 onto South King Street, was completed in December 2021. The county funded approximately $3 million of that work.

The county still has plans to widen Rt. 7 from the Dulles Greenway to Rt. 690, but that work is still years away. The county has budgeted $44.7 million over the next six years just to design and prepare for that work, including bridge work and acquiring right-of-way. Funding to actually begin construction in the first phase of that work, widening eastbound Rt. 7 from Rt. 9 to the Dulles Greenway, is beyond the county Capital Improvement Program’s six-year horizon and estimated at $87.9 million to $92.3 million. All four phases of the project to widen Rt. 7 to Rt. 690 are estimated at as much as $341.9 million together. n ternal affairs, and spent his final four years as deputy chief of Police for Administration. In that capacity, Lee was responsible for the Criminal Justice Academy and the Administrative Support, Information Technology, and Resource Management bureaus.

Loudoun’s agency is the largest full-service sheriff ’s office in the state, with approximately 650 sworn and 200 civilian personnel. Last month, the Board of Supervisors approved 40 new deputy positions, with 36 of them assigned to patrol, one new School Resource Officer, and three co-responder deputies. n

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