Purcellville Council contentiously debates letter to VDOT re 7/690

By Valerie Cury

At the Oct. 10 Town Council meeting Vice Mayor Chris Bertaut asked the town council and the town attorney to review a draft letter written by the planning commission to VDOT Commissioner Stephen C. Birch and Deputy Chief Commissioner Cathy McGhee. The letter lays out concerns regarding the Rt. 7/690 Interchange. After review the letter was forwarded to the Oct. 24 Town Council meeting for discussion.

The letter outlines previous town council and planning commission concerns and questions regarding modifications to the interchange. These modifications include properties that would be required for the project; the safety implications to the citizens; the traffic conditions expected; and the impact of the flood plain conditions along the South Fork Catoctin Creek to town citizens.

The letter says that the information provided by county representatives is “in direct contradiction to what we have learned from various interchange documents to include the Environmental Assessment, the VDOT approved 2019 Rt. 7/690 amended Interchange Justification Report and the 2019 technical memorandum.”

The letter reviews in detail the safety concerns regarding crash fatalities and injuries mentioned in the IJR, and crash analysis and conclusions. There is also concern that the county knew that town private properties and common space would be used for right of way and drainage easements.

The letter asks for an “in-person response from your team regarding this pressing matter.”

Council Member Mary Jane Williams didn’t like that the letter mentioned concern for only “our cherished residents, including parents, children and teachers.”

“Do we not care about our guests in town? You need to include anybody, not just who you mentioned.”

Council Member Erin Rayner said she “didn’t like the way the letter has been written. It’s not truly objective,” and has “a lot of emotion written in it.”

Mayor Stan Milan said it’s the first time he was looking at it and he didn’t like the language. 

He also said he was introduced “today on the crash analysis for the build and no build. The fatalities, yes, will increase and the accidents will increase because there’s a no build and then there’s a build.

“Accidents for the build shows an increase. And the reason is because you build the road and added more inflections and more obstacles on the road. So therefore, that would be logical that you will have more accidents because it’s built then if you didn’t build it.

“So there should be more accidents,” said Milan. “If you don’t build it nothing happens.”

He said the wording in the letter was aggressive. “I would like to change our image that we present to the county, since we’re on a good track to improve that relationship.”

“So as it stands now, I can’t put my signature on it.”

Citing a paragraph that was “very respectfully pointing out that the town council was provided with answers [from the county] that contradicted the IJR and other reports,” Vice Mayor Chris Bertaut said, “That’s a polite way of saying that we were being lied to, so if you find that aggressive, I don’t understand.”

Interrupting Bertaut, Milan said, “I didn’t say that was aggressive, OK.” Milan said he didn’t like the word immediate and “It’s critical to emphasize. Those are the language I am referring to.” He said he didn’t like “urgently request either.” Bertaut said the “examples were helpful.”

Council Member Boo Bennett said, “I’ll just say quickly, I’m for no deaths. So I don’t want it built.” She reminded Milan that the letter was being sent to the state, not the county. 

She continued, “VDOT needs to be aware. FEMA needs to be aware of what the heck is going on. I know the county knows. We need to make people at the state level aware. That’s why it is important. So it’s old news to us; but I don’t think these people have been informed properly.”

October 10 Town Council citizen
comments regarding Rt. 7/690

In the Purcellville Town Council citizen comments portion of the Oct. 10 meeting Ron Rise Sr. opened with a question. “What does the County Rt. 7/690 approved 2019 Interchange Justification Report say about safety?” 

He said crash rates resulting in fatality and injury on the proposed interchange ramps “are 10 times greater if the interchange is built in Purcellville.

“The increase in crashes is attributed to the increase in traffic volumes through the interchange due to the reversion of traffic from Rt. 9 during the peak a.m. and peak hours.

“The county and VDOT rationale is that these predicted crash rates resulting in fatality, injury and property loss for the no build and the 690 Interchange are 30 to 40 % lower [when compared to] the Northern Virginia District inter state average, and 60 to 65 % lower than the Northern Virginia District primary Road average crash rates.” 

He said, “according to a Northern Virginia VDOT traffic engineer’s email in August 2019, the Interchange Justification Report safety analysis is no longer valid and a new analysis is needed for the roundabout interchange design.”

Concerning traffic according to the IJR, Rise Sr. also said “it predicts a decrease of a level of service to a D on the Rt. 7 east and west bound main lanes and east of the Rt. 287 Interchange for both the no build and the 690 Interchange scenarios.

“The Rt. 7 westbound off ramp at Purcellville and the 287 Berlin Turnpike will continue to operate at an E level of service in both the no build 690 Interchange build scenarios in 2040.

“Also on Purcellville’s Main Street in 2040 queuing simulations show significant queuing and blocking along Main Street under both the build and no build scenarios. It is attributed to insufficient capacity of a single westbound lane through downtown Purcellville.”

Rise Sr. continued that according to the same NOVA traffic VDOT
 engineer email dated August 2019, “The 2040 delays for the westbound Hirst Road 690 are levels of service F for both the a.m. peak hours and the p.m. will be 866 seconds – which is almost 15 minutes.”

He said that the VDOT engineer pointed out that the IJR says improvements at Hirst are out of scope. “Ignoring this will only postpone the inevitable” and the VDOT engineer recommends “not going forward until VDOT looks at what can be done at Hirst to reduce the 15-minute peak delay caused by the introduction of the roundabouts to the interchange.”