“When I was in school D was not a good grade.” 

– Planning Commission Chair Nan Forbes

By Valerie Cury

Loudoun County officials advocating for the Town of Purcellville to accept their $40 million dollar plan for an intersection designed to accommodate County goals northwest of the town continue to struggle to show how their proposal will benefit Purcellville’s residents. 

On Feb. 16 Loudoun County’s Assistant Director of Transportation, Jim Zeller, and Jerry Mrykalo, representing the County’s traffic engineering consulting company Dewberry, attended the Purcellville Planning Commission meeting. Zeller and Mrykalo presented their review of Planning Commissioner Ron Rise Sr.’s analysis of the town-wide traffic impact of the proposed Rt.7/690 Interchange. Mrykalo said that Commissioner Rise Sr., who is both an aerospace engineer and a consulting executive, did accurately represent the Interchange Justification Report in his analysis.

Mrykalo said the County’s proposed Level of Service (LOS) outlook generally shows that five out of nine intersections will experience reduced delays. Validating Commissioner Rise Sr.’s analysis, Mrykalo said, “There are these slighter changes in there, but there are not changes sufficient enough to change the letter grade, as you described.”

Mrykalo was referring to the LOS, measured in seconds, as letter grades at some intersections. For example, a LOS of B indicates a delay between 10 and 20 seconds per vehicle, and a LOS of D indicates a 35 to 55 second delay, with an F revealing delays exceeding 80 seconds. Commissioner Rise Sr. said, “I actually show everything you are saying – it improves by three tenths of a second. You are saying I may have done this a little different than you have done it.”

Mrykalo said that out of the intersections that improve, 2.5 out of nine change from an F to a D following the build completion. “Some did worsen from a B to a C but we still characterize them as acceptable … with a build condition … while in the no build condition, there are some D’s and F’s that are resolved with the build condition.”

Planning Commission Chair Nan Forbes said they are seeing that most of the intersections LOS’ remain unchanged from what would be the build year and post-completion. She said that 1.5 of 9 intersections worsen and 2.5 of 9 intersections improve.   

“We’re talking about an expenditure of millions of dollars to do this. Why? What’s the point if nothing is changing? Why are we going through all of this if we are not getting any particular level of improvement?” Chair Forbes continued, “One of these intersections improves. The rest of them remain unchanged or they worsen. If that’s what the data shows, tell me why this is something positive for the Town.”

Zeller said to Chair Forbes that he did not know “how you got here today, to live in Town.” Chair Forbes responded, “I went to nursery school here in 1952; I have been here awhile.” Zeller said that when he came to town “this evening the queue at Rt. 7/287 was backed up several 100 ft. into the main line of Rt. 7.”

“That intersection needs improvement,” said Forbes, “no question.”

Zeller said it came down to providing “another means to access the Town.”

Chair Forbes responded, “All of which would make perfect sense, if the data suggests it would make a difference. But the data suggests that it isn’t going to make any at all.” She noted that “either the intersections remain unchanged or one intersection improves, some.”

Mrykalo added that “it is anticipated that the volumes will be 10 percent lower with the construction of the interchange versus not having the interchange, because of the redistribution of traffic.”  “There are intersections – particularly at 287 – that are anticipated to fail with very, very high delays if the 7/690 Interchange is not constructed,” he said.

Chair Forbes said that the new interchange would put more traffic up toward the west end of Town and on west Main Street.  Mrykalo replied, “What’s important, too, with the ones that worsen – that even though they worsen – there’s one that goes from a B to a C, so they are still operating at acceptable levels.” He added, “No intersections of the ones that get worse, none of them drop below a level D threshold at which you would be concerned with operations.”

Commissioner Nedim Ogelman said, “What I hear you say here is you are taking a whole ton of cars out, and the LOS is still just as bad … my understanding from reading the reports, the objective of this project is not to alleviate the traffic problems of the Town of Purcellville. It’s to do things related to traffic going to the north of the rest of western Loudoun or Woodgrove High School.  That’s the objective of this and I think the point of the question, to me, is what the Chair is asking: how is this helping the Town of Purcellville?”

Commissioner Ogelman said the Interchange Justification Report indicates that the goal of the Rt.7/690 intersection is not to resolve traffic problems in the Town of Purcellville. “The project does what it said it’s going to do. It’s trying to maintain at most ‘do no harm,’ but I’m working for the Town of Purcellville as a volunteer, and I want to know how it helps the Town of Purcellville.”

Zeller said the project both distributes commuter traffic, and the people living in the western part of Town will have “a more direct route to their destination.” 

Chair Forbes pointed out that there is also the Round Hill exit for people who live in the western part of Town. 

Commissioner Rise Sr. said there is a misconception that the interchange fixes things in Town but that it does not do so.  Mrykalo said, “There’s trade offs when you redistribute traffic. Where some intersections will operate with higher volumes – worse than they were before – but overall, when you sum it up volumes are reduced by 10 percent and 5 percent on 287.”

Commissioner Ogelman said the LOS overall “in our intersections in Town is not really improving … and the LOS at Kingsbridge won’t improve … There are three intersections that stay at an F with the build and no build.”

Mrykalo said that some unsignalized intersections will still be in the F range. 

Commissioner Ogelman said that the citizens who live in the Kingsbridge neighborhood are dealing with “a couple of those F’s. They’re wanting this to make their lives better. These are unsignalized, but they don’t improve. If we are talking about spending $40 million of our County’s money … it would be nice to make the lives of those citizens in Town better.”

Dale Lehnig, head of Engineering Planning and Development for the Town of Purcellville said the LOS with the Kingsbridge neighborhood will improve with the 7/287 improvements. 

According to Mrykalo with the Rt. 7/690 Interchange, the Kingsbridge neighborhood will still remain at an F, the delay in seconds will improve from 274 to 196.  Speaking about the Rt. 7/690 Interchange, he said, “It is anticipated to improve the Rt. 7/287 westbound ramp signal from a LOS F to a LOS D.”

Said Chair Forbes, “What would it take to make it better than a D? When I was in school D was not a good grade. F was the worst grade. What would it take to have an actual satisfactory grade?”

Mrykalo replied that “From a traffic perspective, it’s the number of vehicles that are there and the number of lanes. You can either reduce volumes, or add travel lanes.”

“Even if you add travel lanes,” said Chair Forbes, “they will all narrow because you can’t have a seven-lane highway running down Purcellville.”

Zeller concluded, “That’s why you need solutions on both ends of Town.”

“But,” concluded Forbes, “it only gets you to a D for $40 million dollars.”

UPDATE:
This article has been updated to correct the misspelling of Jerry Mrykalo’s name.