• The community desire to keep the feel and aesthetics of a parkway for the Popes Head Interchange rather than a "concrete canyon" design like the interchange at Fair Lakes Parkway - this was accomplished but at a cost of additional right of way at the Popes Head interchange. The bulk of the Fairfax County Parkway in this section will have grass medians except where barriers are needed to improve safety and prevent crossover accidents.
• The community desire to have roundabouts rather than traffic lights at the new Popes Head Road grade separate interchange - this was accomplished but at a cost of additional right of way
• The community desire to keep the Shirley Gate Extension traffic from mixing with Popes Head Road traffic - accomplished but will require Popes Head traffic to go through Shirley Gate roundabouts - still a significant time savings from today's conditions.
• The community desire to keep full access at the Burke Centre Parkway as opposed to the right in right out originally proposed - accomplished in the short term with an AM left turn restriction to allow free flowing traffic northbound on the parkway in the AM.  The Board approved Supervisor Cook's and my request to look at an interchange in the long term - this is considered important by Burke Centre merchants and residents.
• The desire for Laudes End Lane residents to have access to the Parkway north - accomplished with a link to the Popes Head interchange
• The desire for construction of a missing link on the Parkway's path system - accomplished taking the trail through the railroad track underpass.
• The desire to limit the impact to a proposed church in the north east corner of the Popes Head Road and Fairfax County Parkway intersection - accomplished.

As expected with any project of this magnitude, there were a few issues that we were not able to address.  The most impactful and noticeable of these was inability to get sound walls for many of the residents in the lower density and rural areas along the parkway due primarily to federal and state regulations. I was not in favor of some residents' request to remove a key transportation link from our transportation map.  The Shirley Gate extension is projected to handle over 12,000 vehicles per day and provides critical relief to Braddock Road and 123. It also provides access to Patriot Park which is now provided through a neighborhood with inadequate roads. This project is currently funded at $14 Million (funded through design and partial right of way) and is a county priority because of the congestion relief it provides.

The level of citizen engagement on this project has been unprecedented. Valuable feedback from the community has been provided to VDOT and the County throughout this process and as I noted earlier, lead to the complete redesign of the proposed interchange to include roundabouts rather than traffic signals.While no transportation project will ever please everyone - especially for those directly impacted by the project, VDOT, FCDOT, many residents and my team have done their best to reduce impacts and cost while providing much needed traffic congestion relief and safety improvements.  It is time to move this project into construction and provide safety and congestion relief for the over 115,000 trips that will be carried by this section of the parkway. Please consider showing up to express your support.