Plans in Place for Extended Rt. 9 Eastbound Ramp onto Rt. 7

Loudoun supervisors on Tuesday approved plans to extend Rt. 9’s ramp onto eastbound Rt. 7, a project expected to help with morning rush-hour backups at the interchange.

The Virginia Department of Transportation’s previous Route 7 Truck Climbing Lane Project, which completed in October 2015, constructed a third westbound lane from Leesburg to Rt. 9; built new acceleration and deceleration lanes; built two new roundabouts where the ramps from Rt. 7 meet Rt. 9, Colonial Highway and Dry Mill Road; and relocated the W&OD Trail through the Rt. 9 interchange.

But the project did not include any improvements to eastbound Rt. 7. After that work, VDOT launched a Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions, or STARS, study, which was complete in 2017. That study recommended improvements at the Rt. 9 roundabouts and extending the acceleration lane onto eastbound Rt. 7. Supervisors have approved plans to extend the acceleration lane by approximately 650 feet. The county expects to fund about $2.2 million of that project’s $2.7 million cost.

Another of the study’s recommendations, an extended merge from westbound Rt. 7 onto South King Street, was completed in December 2021. The county funded approximately $3 million of that work.

The county still has plans to widen Rt. 7 from the Dulles Greenway to Rt. 690, but that work is still years away. The county has budgeted $44.7 million over the next six years just to design and prepare for that work, including bridge work and acquiring right-of-way. Funding to actually begin construction in the first phase of that work, widening eastbound Rt. 7 from Rt. 9 to the Dulles Greenway, is beyond the county Capital Improvement Program’s six-year horizon and estimated at $87.9 million to $92.3 million. All four phases of the project to widen Rt. 7 to Rt. 690 are estimated at as much as $341.9 million.