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Heathcote, Linton Hall open
Traveling through western Prince William got a little easier just before the holidays as the newly-widened Linton Hall Road and the Heathcote Boulevard extension opened to the public.
On Dec. 19, officials cut the ribbons to open both roads to traffic. The highways are both projects from the 1998 bond referendum.
The Heathcote Boulevard extension is a 1,500-foot stretch that links Old Caroline Road to U.S. 15. The extension, connects two existing pieces of Heathcote Boulevard and is part of a five-phase project that will total $55 million, according to county engineer Sam Alattar.
All five phases are being done simultaneously, although they will be completed at different times.
The alignment of Waterfall Road is already complete. Two phases involve the widening of U.S. 15 and the final phase is Old Carolina Road.
The entire five-phase project, all part of a single public-private partnership, should be complete in December 2009.
The Linton Hall Road widening was also constructed as a public-private partnership.
That project involved widening 1.5 miles of Linton Hall Road, between Route 28 and Sudley Manor Drive. As part of the project, workers demolished the old bridge over the Broad Run and replaced it with a new four-lane bridge.
The project took 13 months and was finished eight months ahead of schedule, said Tom Blaser, director of the county's Transportation Department.
But despite being ahead of schedule, the project cost a lot more than anticipated.
"When we put it on the bond in 1998, we were just going to write VDOT a check for $5 million," Blaser said.
The understanding was that the $5 million would be Prince William's contribution to the road widening and that the Virginia Department of Transportation would foot the rest of the bill.
But state budget cutbacks hit and VDOT dropped the project so Prince William taxpayers ended up picking up the entire $37 million.
That's a scenario that could be repeated in the coming years. In December, state officials announced a $2.6-billion transportation cut over the next six years.
The bright side, said Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R), is that Prince William has been building its own roads for so long that it won't be hit as hard by the state cuts.
"We took it into our own hands and built our own roads and thank God we did," he said.
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