The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) board voted July 14 to adopt funding 20 multimodal transportation projects in the region for its 2022-2027 six-year program update while leaving another six candidate projects unfunded — four of which were submitted by Prince William County.
The unanimous vote by NVTA will invest a total of nearly $625 million.
InsideNoVa, a northern Virginia online news source, reported that NVTA received 26 project submissions worth more than $1.2 billion from nine jurisdictions in the region for its annual funding round this year, with authority staff recommending full approval for 17 candidate projects and partial approval for three others.
As with each round of the NVTA's six-year program update, funding for the approved projects will not become available until the last two years — in this case fiscal 2026 and 2027.
For Prince William County, NVTA staff recommended the full $53 million requested to extend the four-lane University Boulevard from Devlin to Wellington Road. The county already has other Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) money and federal funding lined up to help pay for the project.
"This is the last piece of University Boulevard in [our Comprehensive] Plan, and once this is completed, we'll have a full University Boulevard from [U.S. Highway 29] all the way to Godwin Drive," Paolo Belita, the county's planning manager, told InsideNoVa. "It's a new facility, and there's a lot going on in that side of the county."
NVTA's approval also secures the full $25 million requested by the county to widen Old Bridge Road from Colby Drive to Minnieville Road.
In addition, Prince William will receive partial funding for a pair of other construction projects: An extension of Van Buren Road from Va. 234 to Cardinal Drive, totaling $8 million of the $80 million asked for; and $3 million of the $61.2 million requested for a new interchange at U.S. 1 and Va. 123.
At the latter interchange, the county wants to construct a new four-lane overpass that would carry Va. 123 over U.S. 1 in Woodbridge to replace the regularly congested, at-grade traffic signal intersection. Belita noted that the project has some federal funding on hand to begin the preliminary engineering for the interchange, and that Prince William will be asking for additional money from VDOT.
"We're trying to leverage it with other sources of funding," he told InsideNoVa.
In Manassas, NVTA approved the full $8.8 million requested to add a third eastbound lane to Liberia Avenue from Va. 28 to Euclid Avenue. That was the only project submitted by the city to this round of NVTA funding.
Prince William to Continue Seeking Funds
Of the six candidate projects that went unfunded by the NVTA staff's recommended plan, four were in Prince William County:
- The $96 million project to widen Old Centreville Road from the Fairfax County line to U.S. 28.
- A new interchange at Prince William Parkway and Minnieville Road, estimated to cost $67.5 million.
- A $35 million effort to widen Devlin Road from Linton Hall to University Boulevard.
- Another $26.5 million to widen Neabsco Road from U.S. 1 to Daniel Ludwig Drive.
Belita said the county next plans to submit projects that received partial funding to VDOT's SMART SCALE program, a process that helps Virginia meet its most critical transportation needs using limited tax dollars. The next deadline for a full application submission to SMART SCALE is Aug. 1.
He added that his office also will likely re-submit projects to NVTA in coming years, adding that the chances of any one project being approved depends on how the authority scores it and what other jurisdictions submit.
"All our projects have some significant needs … and it all depends on what projects are submitted and how much we ask," Belita explained. "We'll look at other funding opportunities, [then] we'll circle back to see if we need to look at our estimates again, [and] do some more coordination."
But InsideNoVa reported NVTA's approval process is based primarily around how projects score on congestion reduction per dollar, which also means that roadway widenings and interchange projects typically have an advantage over projects aimed at improving pedestrian or bicycle facilities — something built into the authority's legislative mandate.
Of the $626 million approved by NVTA this round, over 68 percent of the money will go to roadway and intersection projects, and 28 percent — including $80 million for Arlington County's western Ballston-MU Metrorail station entrance, $80 million for the U.S. 1 bus/rapid transit line, and $10 million for electric buses in Fairfax County — is to be used for various other transit-focused projects. Just 4.4 percent will go toward pedestrian/bike-focused projects.
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