Fairfax County details Lee Chapel Road safety reconstruction, plans full closure during work

Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herity and Fairfax County transportation staff on a community call outlined plans to rebuild roughly a 1,800-foot segment of Lee Chapel Road between Fairfax County Parkway and Ox Road to correct substandard vertical geometry, improve shoulders and replace drainage.

"This is really a safety project to, you know, remove what I call an attractive nuisance," Supervisor Pat Herity said, urging residents to provide input on the county’s preferred design. County staff said a public survey showed overwhelming support for a full road closure during construction and the design now assumes that approach.

The county’s design presentation, led by project manager Depish Pandy, lays out a 90%-complete design that follows the existing centerline where possible to minimize impacts. The plan would replace an existing triple 36‑inch culvert with a single 72‑inch pipe to carry upstream flow under the roadway, correct a high point by roughly 2 feet and raise a low spot by roughly 10 feet to produce a smoother profile, and provide two 11‑foot travel lanes with wider shoulders (staff described 8–12 feet of shoulder area with about 6 feet paved in many sections).

The project team said they considered two construction approaches — keeping the roadway partially open or closing it completely — and that public feedback favored closure. "We then gathered public feedback through a survey; the community overwhelmingly favored the road‑closure option," Pandy said, and the design reflects that outcome.

Environmental and regulatory work is under way. Staff said wetland and stream delineations and a Phase 1 cultural resources survey have been completed; five archaeological sites were identified and four were recommended for Phase 2 intensive survey to evaluate eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. Because the work would convert about 0.88 acres of parkland to roadway right-of-way, the county plans a land swap with the Fairfax County Park Authority and will pursue Section 6(f) approvals and federal/state permits as required, including Corps of Engineers review for stream and wetland impacts.

On traffic impacts and analysis, Matt Martin, the consultant design lead, deferred to traffic engineer Ravi Raut. "We conducted the traffic counts in 2024," Raut said, and added the study modeled 2027 buildout conditions using the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) travel model and took into account signal‑timing changes and other scenarios. Raut said the team expects operations to be manageable with closure and detours in place, though some locations could show increased queues depending on driver routing and signal timing.

Staff displayed detour options for drivers using Fairfax County Parkway and Ox Road and said temporary gravel access and a four‑phase construction sequence would maintain local access while the main roadway is closed. The county identified likely affected utilities — Dominion Energy, Verizon Virginia, Cox Communications and Washington Gas — and said test holes and utility coordination are ongoing.

Staff estimated the project cost at about $9.5 million. The schedule presented calls for completion of 90% design in summer 2026, land acquisition beginning in winter 2026 with about a 12‑month typical timeline (staff said acquisitions could be as quick as six months if coordination and land swaps proceed smoothly), utility relocation between fall 2027 and summer 2028, and construction to begin summer 2028 with completion in spring 2029. Staff set a public comment deadline of June 30, 2026 and posted a project page with slides and a recording.

Residents asked whether the March 2024 traffic counts account for post‑2025 return‑to‑office commuting changes; Raut said the modeling uses MWCOG growth and a 2027 condition to reflect expected changes. Other public questions addressed notification options for those who sign up for updates (staff said the comment form includes a notification checkbox), planting plans (staff said planting will be coordinated with the Fairfax County Park Authority), whether the road will be widened to four lanes (staff said there is no plan to widen to four lanes as part of this project), and whether water quality in the South Run stream will be harmed (staff said little new impervious surface is added and required water‑quantity controls and protective measures should avoid negative effects).

Materials and a video of the presentation will be posted on the Fairfax County project page; staff asked that written comments be submitted by June 30, 2026. The county emphasized that several federal and state environmental approvals and a parkland conversion review will be required before construction can proceed.