During mid-March 2016 FABB was encouraging riders to turn out for a public hearing to show support for plans to build a bridge to take the W&OD Trail over Wiehle Avene in Reston. Then as now, the Wiehle Avenue crossing was a dangerous at-grade one that had been the site of several bike crashes.
Bicycling and other transportation advocates had raised this safety issue several years earlier. In 2013 the Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force, which developed the Reston Master Plan in anticipation of the arrival of three Metro Silver Line stations, recommended that the W&OD should be utilized as a “bicycle/pedestrian highway” to get people to and from the new Wiehle-Reston East Metro station. To bring this vision to fruition, the task force recommended building a grade-separated crossing at Wiehle Avenue, which helped to get the bridge design process started.
More than five years later, in July 2018, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the Wiehle bridge project’s final design plans. The bridge is scheduled to be complemented in 2021 after utility design is finished, utility poles are relocated, and other pre-construction preparations are completed. As the bridge is being constructed, Wiehle Avenue will be widened from Sunset Hills Road to the Reston Fire Station property in preparation for the installation of future on-road bike lanes.
It take years to develop and complete critical multimodal transportation infrastructure. FABB needs your help now to identify and advocate for future bike commuting and recreation facilities to make bicycling better and make Fairfax healthier and less congested. Questions? Send us a note at [email protected].
