Dulles Metrorail August update

On or around August 25, Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project crews will dramatically shift the eastbound lanes south into parking lots of car dealers and other retailers from the Best Buy area west to the Dulles Toll Road (Route 267) interchange. This shift will create the large construction zone that is needed in the median of Route 7 to build the future Tysons West Metrorail Station. This change involves both the Westwood Center Drive/Tyco Road and Spring Hill Road intersections where pedestrians and drivers will need to pay special attention to new lane patterns and the wider Route 7 crosswalks.

The last remaining
mid-block left turn between Route 123 and the Dulles Toll Road will also be
closed. That means drivers will no longer be able to make left turns across
oncoming traffic directly into businesses on this stretch of Route 7 from 123
to the Toll Road. Instead, drivers will be able to make U-turns at the existing
intersections: Gosnell Road/Westpark Drive, Spring Hill Road and Westwood
Center Drive/Tyco Road.

Earlier this summer, Route
7 eastbound from the Best Buy area to Route 123 was shifted more than 40 feet
southward to create the construction zone for the Tysons Central 7 Station near
SAIC, the Marshalls shopping center and Pike 7 Plaza.

This change provided
residents, commuters and shoppers a stunning view of what construction of rail
stations in the middle of Route 7 will look like and how wide the roadway will
be. But it also changed driving patterns.

Also, pedestrians crossing
Route 7 and Gosnell Road/Westpark Drive saw a change in traffic signals. New
signals that allow walkers to cross halfway and push buttons to get signal
changes to allow them to cross the other half of Route 7 are now in place.

In the coming weeks,
changes also will be made in the westbound lanes from Route 123 to the Toll
Road when those lanes are shifted north to or just beyond the curb lines of the
service roads that are now being abandoned to create a wider roadbed. These
shifts will not be as substantial as the shifts on the eastbound lanes, but
traffic patterns will change.

Construction of the inbound
and outbound tunnels that will carry rail tracks from Route 123 to Route 7 in
Tysons Corner continues at a steady pace. Miners continue to use the New
Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) six days a week to build these tunnels through
the highest natural point in Fairfax County. By the end of July, the outbound
tunnel measured 1,218 feet and the inbound tunnel was at 957 feet. When
completed the tunnels will be 2,400 feet.

Overnight closures of
westbound I-66 at the Dulles Connector Road (Route 267) split are expected to
begin before the end of August, causing significant detours. The closures will
allow Dulles Rail construction crews to build large concrete structures that
will straddle the road between piers near where the new rail line will merge
into Metro’s existing Orange Line. The structures are known as straddle bents.
Traffic will not be allowed to flow below this construction work for safety
reasons.

The closings will take
place over a period of about five weeks but the specific dates have not been
set. The closings will happen during overnight hours from midnight to 5 a.m. All
lanes will be reopened by the morning rush.

Crews soon will begin
building a second of the large yellow and blue trusses that are being used to
build the bridges to carry the aerial tracks for the rail line along the
northwest side of Route 123 in Tysons Corner. Work is scheduled to begin by
mid-August on the truss that will be used to erect spans of the bridges above
the Capital Beltway between piers. The assembly will take place along Route 123
in a cloverleaf at the Beltway. Construction will start on the spans above the
Beltway in October.