Today: Meeting on Proposed Dulles Toll Ramp

Fairfax County planners are forging ahead with plans to complete the transportation network around the Silver Line, but the new Tysons Dulles Toll Road Ramps are being met with resistance from Vienna residents who say the ramps and accompanying road extensions are unnecessary and damaging to the area's habitat and environment.

County staff has scheduled a public meeting about the ramps from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at , which will include an open house to view displays of the concepts, a short presentation and a question-and-answer session.

The plans for extensions and ramps come as part of the Comprehensive Plan for the Tysons Corner Urban Center; while the county's goal is to create a walkable, mixed-use center around Tysons with a diversity of transit options, it also wants to expand the transportation network surrounding it to ease trips for buses and cars.

Part of a workable network, according to the plan, could be up to three new connections to the Dulles Tolld Road, as well as examining the existing Dulles Toll Road connections to Route 7 and Spring Hill Road. These options could help alleviate a growing traffic problem on Leesburg Pike, planners say.

The proposed ramp would extend Boone Boulevard from where it now ends, behind Bed Bath and Beyond,  to a new exit ramp from the Dulles Access Road, creating a new major traffic route.

But residents from the Westbriar Civic Association, which encompasses the Northeast corner of Vienna and the unincorporated land bordering Tysons Corner, say the road would follow the path of Tysons Spring Run, a stream which flows into Difficult Run before joining the Potomac River near Great Falls — an area surrounded by the last remaining natural forest in Tysons Corner, they say.

"It is an area of considerable beauty, and very popular for hiking by Vienna residents. The woodland absorbs the increasingly large run-off from roofs and parking lots during heavy rain," said John Shreffler, the association's president.

The source of the stream is a natural, year-round flowing spring paved over by the present day Radio Shack in the Pike 7 Shopping Center, Shreffler said; the stream exits from the north end of a bridge on Gosnell Road.

"Deer, foxes, raccoons, possums, turtles, frogs, and other critters call these woods home, and delight hikers ... owls, red-shouldered Hawks, and about 20 other species of birds share this fragile woodland," he wrote on the association's website.

Shreffler says construction of the new route would destroy about 82 to 88 percent of the forest, making absorption during heavy rains "negligible."

"Downstream runoff will be about eight times present flow, and the stream will be channeled in huge concrete culverts under the roadway," he said.

Residents who posted their opposition on the association's website are also skeptical of the need for a road — the pending completion of the HOT Lanes project on the Capital Beltway will likely help with easing Rt. 7 congestion, they said, as will expanding Leesburg Pike.

Residents also fear the impact the construction will have on homes and apartments along Gosnell Road.

Thursday's meeting will start at 6 p.m. at 1741 Pine Valley Drive. For more information, contact Seyed Nabavi at 703-877-5759.

To read all letters from concerned Westbriar residents, click here.

The county will also hold an open house from 7 to 9 p.m. June 4 on all transportation projects in Tysons, including:

• Dulles Toll Road Ramp Study
• TMSAMS (Tysons Metrorail Station Access Management Study)
• Fairfax County Bicycle Master Plan
• Tysons Street Grid Analysis (Consolidated Transportation Impact Analyses)
• Tysons Circulator Study
• Jones Branch Connector Bridge Improvement
• Stormwater management goals
• Parks Planning
• Urban Design Guidelines adopted for Tysons