Council hears Germantown Road multimodal improvements update; project proceeds to public hearing and 60% design

City public-works and planning staff and consultants presented a 60% design update Oct. 7 for Germantown Road (between Route 50 and the Fairfax city line), outlining multimodal improvements that include turn-lane additions, medians, access-management changes, a 10-foot shared-use path, signal and crosswalk upgrades, retaining walls at constrained locations and proposed tree mitigation.

Transportation Director Wendy Sanford and consultants from AMT explained the corridor’s issues — high access density (many driveways and side-street entrances), rear-end and angle crashes, peak-hour congestion and limited pedestrian/bicycle facilities — and described measures intended to address those problems.

Key components of the draft design include adding dedicated right- and left-turn lanes at several intersections, replacing two-way center-turn lanes in some segments with medians and…