Proposed Redesign of Nutley Street/I-66 Interchange
A new conceptual design for the Nutley Street interchange as part of the I-66 Outside the Beltway project will be discussed at a public meeting coming up on June 5 in Vienna. FAM Construction, the I-66 Outside the Beltway design-build team, developed the new design that reduces the number of thru lanes on Nutley, eliminates traffic lights proposed for the diverging diamond interchange, and is engineered for lower speeds by using the roundabouts on both ends. It would also provide bicyclists and pedestrians a grade separated trail along Nutley as well as the I-66 trail.
The new redesign provides for a Nutley Street shared use path (SUP) that would be grade separated through the highway on and off ramps, although the path does cross from the east side of Nutley to the west side at a signalized at grade crossing. The path loops around the ramps as it goes up and over the bridge and will connect north to a future Town of Vienna project to continue the path along Nutley north of Virginia Center Blvd.
The I-66 parallel trail continues to be grade separated through the interchange in the new design. The only at grade crossing is where the trail comes out of the interchange and crosses an I-66 onramp as it connects with the off-corridor section on Virginia Center Blvd around the Vienna metro. This happens in the original diverging diamond design too.
FABB first learned about the interchange redesign at our I-66 Trail update meeting earlier this year. The redesigned interchange was met positively by meeting attendees who also offered VDOT improvement suggestions, including: a high visibility enhanced crosswalk where the parallel trail comes out of the interchange and connects with the off-corridor project around the Vienna metro, an access point Dellwood Dr., and possibly a more direct sidewalk for pedestrians who may be deterred from using the loopy bike trail.
Learn more and provide feedback to VDOT by attending the public meeting that will be held at Madison High School (2500 James Madison Drive, Vienna) on June 5 from 6:30 – 8:30pm. A short presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m.
