First Pedestrian Bridge Over Road Part Of Completed Prince William County Interchange

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — Officials celebrated the completion of an interchange and pedestrian bridge on a busy commuter route connecting eastern and western Prince William County.

The Route 234/Brentsville Road interchange project, located in the Coles District, provided a new interchange connecting the Route 234 Bypass, the Prince William County Parkway, Dumfries Road and Brentsville Road. There is also a new pedestrian and bicyclist bridge crossing Route 234 near Brentsville Road.

"You cannot connect the east and the west without the Coles District," said Supervisor Yesli Vega (R-Coles) at the ribbon cutting. "This is a project that has been long overdue and in the making."

The $54.9 million project was fully funded by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, which decides funding for transportation projects using regional revenues. The county began pursuing the project in 2019 and broke ground in 2022. The pedestrian bridge opened before the entire project was scheduled for completion in summer 2024.

"We were able to design it and build it at the same time. We're one of the only counties that uses this method to build projects outside of VDOT," said Rick Canizales, director of the Prince William Department of Transportation. "We were able to get a groundbreaking in ’22, and two years later here we are with a fully built project where we added this pedestrian bridge, that you are seeing here today, into the project to be able to make it pedestrian-friendly, bicycle-friendly and making sure that we are connecting our major facilities around the county."

Joe Marshall, the Coles District member of the 16-member Prince William County Trails and Blueways Council that advises the county on trails development, shared excitement about the county's first pedestrian bridge over a roadway.

"Biking over this pedestrian bridge is so much better than dodging traffic coming off of a high-speed roadway," said Marshall at the ribbon cutting. "This is an awesome bridge and hopefully the first of several needed throughout the county to realize the mobility trail network in the county’s comprehensive plan. I believe my neighbors and I, and many in the county, will feel the benefits of this intersection for years to come."