Keeping Loudoun Moving - Eastern Loudoun Transportation Study

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Loudoun County, Virginia is one of the fastest growing counties in the nation; its population has doubled since 2000. The unprecedented growth the county has experienced over the last several decades has resulted in a continued and an ever-increasing strain on its transportation network. Transportation is one of the most important services provided by government, fulfilling the crucial role of linking people to their jobs, schools, recreation and shopping. Loudoun County adopted its first Countywide Transportation Plan (CTP) in 1995. The CTP was revised in 2001 and again in 2010. The CTP is a planning document that establishes a long-range vision for the county’s transportation network and defines policies that provide for the successful implementation of that network. The county’s road network is constantly changing. Segments of the network are being designed and constructed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the county, the private development community through proffers and conditions, and through partnerships amongst those entities. This quilt-like approach to road construction has led to a patchwork roads network which has resulted in missing segments and bottlenecks. In January 2012, a new Board of Supervisors took office. Many of the newly-elected Board members made funding an improved transportation network a major priority. They were especially interested in identifying and completing missing links in the county. At its first business meeting in January 2012, the newly-elected Loudoun County Board of Supervisors brought forth an initiative to address Loudoun County’s road network. The Chairman introduced the initiative that directed county staff to develop a report for the Board of Supervisors that would identify deficiencies and missing links in the Eastern Loudoun transportation network, in the fastest growing area of the county. The report would provide information on: network deficiencies; missing links in the network; an estimated cost to build the missing links and address the network deficiencies; an inventory of development proffers including an analysis of the timing of the proffers; an analysis of the right-of-way availability; and a summary of potential funding sources. Over several months, staff completed this project, and the information serves as a foundation for transportation improvements in the coming years.