Battlefield Parkway Link is a Big Accomplishment

There may be a Leesburg road project that is more significant than the recent between Edwards Ferry and Ft. Evans Roads, but right now I can’t think of one – at least not in recent memory.

Last Saturday, two lanes of the road opened with little fanfare, at last providing the final link in the nearly six-mile parkway.  At the same time, the parkway’s intersection with Edwards Ferry Road was reopened.

For local shoppers like me, who regularly run the circuit between , Costco and , it means that we can finally do so without joining the hordes of traffic on the Leesburg Bypass.

We can now take care of our everyday shopping errands without trying to merge with and then un-merge from the destination traffic headed to the – not to mention the thru-traffic taking the historic “Old Carolina Road” (Route 15) from Pennsylvania or Maryland toward North Carolina and points south.

Earlier this week, I congratulated Town Manager John Wells on the opening of the new road segment.

“This is really big,” he acknowledged. “It will significantly change the traffic patterns on the east side of Leesburg.“

This echoed a statement from Renée LaFollette, Leesburg’s Deputy Director of Capital Projects Management.

“We’re very pleased that our contractor has been able to take advantage of the dry weather to move the completion of this phase of the project ahead of schedule,” she said in a press release. “We know the closure of Edwards Ferry Road has been inconvenient for many people and we appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation during the closure.”

The temporary inconvenience will be well worth it, if for no other reason than to provide an alternative to the Bypass for getting between Edwards Ferry and Ft. Evans Roads. The glaring need for this link – and the fact that it was the last section of Battlefield Parkway to open – led me to ask Wells a fairly obvious question: What took so long?

He replied that there were two main reasons. First, the Town of Leesburg had to provide 100 percent of the financing for this road segment. According to LaFollette, the project totaled $8.1 million, including land acquisition, design, and construction – just for the 0.7-mile segment between Ft. Evans and Edwards Ferry Roads. For perspective, this is about 10 percent of the town’s annual budget, although it should be noted that the project costs were spread over multiple years.

The other obstacle, according to Wells, was that the town’s acquisition of the land and easements necessary to complete the project did not go as smoothly as hoped. Some of the land was acquired through condemnation, and the courts are still sorting out points of contention between the town and the landowners.

He pointed out that the opening of the link actually came ahead of schedule. “Our goal was to have it open before school started,” he said.  “And we’re also glad to have it open before the [America’s 9/11 Foundation] Motorcycle Ride.”

That event, which will take place this Friday, August 19, will have an enormous impact on Leesburg’s traffic flow that day, and will underscore the need for transportation alternatives such as that provided by Battlefield Parkway.

Wells said that the other two lanes of the parkway between Edwards Ferry and Ft. Evans Roads should be complete by the end of the year.  He added, however, that the current strike by Verizon employees is holding up the relocation of utilities, and that this could delay the project.

Like many others who live and shop in Leesburg, I look forward to the day when those lanes open and Battlefield Parkway is fully complete. But for now, I am happy about the opening of this missing link, and I congratulate town officials for seeing it through.