John Farrell noted yesterday about South Lakes High synthetic turf ballfield that Comstock has $700,000 proffer to Fairfax County Parks Authority.

While SLHS needs are important, proffers should be (must be?) used to help ameliorate congestion problems being created in vicinity of Wiehle Avenue project construction. Last year at budget local meeting, Supervisor Hudgins claimed that up to $5 million is budgeted to add sidewalks in vicinity of the Reston Metrorail station. Later in the year, I asked the Supervisor about the design and funding status for bridge for W & OD trail over Wiehle Avenue. I don't recall the specific answer.

Suggest that for Supervisor Hudgins budget meeting at Reston Community Center March 27, County staff bring map showing details of funding status of all presently approved transportation improvements in Reston plus those proposed in FY 2014 budget, funds proffered by approved projects in Reston and funding amounts proffered by WMATA or Dulles Rail project for Reston station access improvements.

I would LOVE to see this extension. We have to take Reston Parkway or the Wiehle bridge to get to Plaza America, the professional offices near there, Lake Anne Plaza, and SkateQuest; would be nice to have Soapstone as a more direct route to most of those.

New road connections are certainly part of the solution for the County's and Reston's traffic problems. Extending Soapstone over the Toll Road might help. Nevertheless a proposal like this needs to be evaluated in the context of other possible uses of the same resources. Would the same expenditure for buses, for example, or for bus lanes on existing streets or other road connections reduce congestion more? My sense is that expanded bus service in the northwest quadrant of the County (and that might include bus lanes or other minor road improvements) would reduce congestion far more than a Soapstone connector. We would have to see some detailed analyses to be sure.
I also have to wonder how likely a Soapstone Connector is. Who would pay for it and build it? Does it need VDOT's and the Airport Authority's agreement, not to mention the agreement of the landowners involved? This would not be the first time a politician offered a proposal like this to deflect criticism and postpone any real action. You will remember that Frank Wolf once pushed a monorail to the airport as a solution to traffic problems.

The lack of local crossings over the Dulles Toll Road is a major issue. There just are not enough options to get between North and South Reston. Even one or two additional bridges would have a major impact.

Page 12 of the powerpoint says the corridor is sized for 2 lanes in each direction but page 4 says only one lane in each direction.

The costs to bridge the width of the Access road, the Toll road and the Metro line are going to be so great that it will make no economic sense to only have one motor vehicle travel lane in each direction. The costs per peak hour trip will make Metro look cheap.

Alignment 1C is outright crazy. Traffic eastbound on Sunrise already backs up to Soapstone now in the AM peak. Putting more northbound traffic on Sunrise for one or two blocks is asking for perpetual gridlock.

Alignment 5C has northbound Soapston traffic turning westbound Sunrise to get to the bridge. Alignments 6E has a similar problem.

None of those 3 alignments make any sense.

That narrows the choices appear to 3D, 4D & 4D'.

4D takes out one building. 4D' takes out 2.

Leaving one alignment - 3D.

Based on the article and the comments there does not appear to be any major opposition to extending the route. The big questions seem to be primarily related to the most effective implementation. Is this an accurate presumption?

The key issue NOT discussed at the Task Force presentation--and the key driver for building the Soapstone extension in the first place--is relieving the traffic burden on the Wiehle Ave. bridge, especially in peak periods, for those headed to/from Metrorail parking. I am hopeful this will be discussed at this SLHS meeting.

In general, I suspect the farther west the extension is located, the less likely it will be to reduce Wiehle traffic and, therefore, the less value it would have. The original RMAG proposal would have had the extension touch down right next to the Metrorail parking garage and link northward to Isaac Newton Square--and easy route choice for those headed to Metrorail from either north or south. After that, preferences for the extension may drop fast as route selection moves westward. The traffic impact analysis needed for this decision will tell.

We'll see--hopefully Wednesday night.

I would LOVE to see this built. For me personally, it would knock a good 10-15 minutes off a walk to the Metro.