Fairfax County will present its work on Embark Richmond Highway at the prestigious Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Mid-Colonial District Annual Conference on April 16 in Philadelphia.

The county’s transportation and land use planners will discuss the ambitious effort to transform the 7.5-mile corridor to support multi-modal improvements that include a bus rapid transit (BRT) system, increased mobility and revitalization. Tom Burke from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation and Joanne Fiebe from the Fairfax County Office of Community Revitalization will present.

Embark includes the overall effort to revamp the corridor’s land use plan, widen the highway to six lanes along the entire corridor, provide continuous sidewalk and bicycle facilities, build a BRT system, and incorporate policy language for an eventual two-stop extension of Metro’s Yellow Line.

Fairfax received a $400,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration, with a $200,000 match from Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation, to help develop urban design standards and refined grids of streets. The county was one of only 16 jurisdictions to receive the FTA’s Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development Planning grant in 2016.

Last month, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the sweeping new land use plan that was the first major step needed to build the future BRT system.

Overall, the land use plan supports transit and greater mobility, including:

• Compact, environmentally sustainable, highly-active mixed-use centers that support high-quality transit that will catalyze redevelopment and revitalization
• Complete street cross-section for Richmond Highway.
• Innovative grids of streets in four of the corridor’s centers, creating multimodal access and connectivity within these centers, to and from the BRT stations and surrounding neighborhoods.
• Enhanced bicycle and pedestrian facilities on Richmond Highway, providing improved multimodal access and connectivity to the corridor, centers and surrounding neighborhoods.
• Policy guidance for a future expansion of the Metrorail Yellow line.

The planning and design for the nine-station, BRT system have begun. It will operate mainly in the median from the Huntington Metrorail Station to Fort Belvoir.

The BRT will initially be built in two phases, with the first connecting the Huntington Metro to Hybla Valley. The environmental analyses and preliminary design for this first phase are currently anticipated to be completed by the end of 2019.

Founded in 1930, the Institute of Transportation Engineers is an international membership association of transportation professionals, including engineers, planners, consultants, educators, technologists, and researchers.

For more information, contact the Fairfax County Department of Transportation at 703-877-5602, TTY 711.

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