Road Work On Hunter Mill Continues Today

Drivers traveling on Hunter Mill Road between Cedar Pond Drive and Silk Oak Drive can expect delays and alternating lane closures Wednesday as Fairfax County crews repair a broken pipe on the new bridge over Difficult Run.

Steve Walls, a distribution superintendent with the county's department of transportation, wrote in an email that the broken pipe wasn't having an impact on the bridge itself, but the repair would require taking down a guard rail.

Most of the work was completed Tuesday before 4 p.m., he said; crews are returning Wednesday after 9 a.m. to clean up and restore the site.

"We planning on being done before 3 p.m., at least with anything that would impact the roadway," Walls wrote.

Some commuters were frustrated Tuesday by what they called a lack of communication about the repairs, which they said caused backups past Lawyers Road and to Sunset Hills Road shortly after 7 a.m.

One reader wrote in an email that the Oakton Elementary School bus that usually stops to pick up children at the Hunter Mill School was almost 25 minutes late.

Students and residents trying to get to work could have been on time had there been proper signage and notice, she said.

Other commuters recalled a similar incident earlier this month, when downed wires closed Lawyers Road

Walls said "at no time was the road completely closed."

He said signage was in place and crews did not start work until shortly before 9 a.m.; crews could have been putting up the signs before then but the road was not blocked, he said.

Walls said Virginia Power also had a contractor working on the power lines on Hunter Mill Road and also had one lane blocked, using flagmen to alternate traffic.

"We both had the proper signs up and flagmen at both ends of our work areas. We were about a quarter mile from one another," he said.

"Water breaks are emergencies and if not repaired do cause road and other types of property damage," Walls said. "The pipe on Hunter Mill is actually in pretty good shape and the last time we had something like this was over ten years ago."