City Council Wants Delegate, Senator to Work to Improve Route 28

Traffic on Route 28 tops the legislative agenda city council said it plans to present to Del. Bob Marshall and Sen. Charles Colgan—the two men who represent Manassas Park and portions of Manassas and Prince William County in the Virginia House and Senate, respectively.

 The body gave city staff direction on preparing the agenda a work session held during council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday.

The document isn't yet finalized, but will be presented to Marshall and Colgan on Nov. 29.

The agenda is comprised of issues that affect Manassas Park; it is these issues the governing body wants Marshall and Colgan to focus on when the General Assembly is in session in Richmond.

Council members also created another list with topics the body has a position on, but aren’t necessarily a priority.

Council members discussed some of the existing options for improving the traffic pattern on the major artery, one of which is a proposed Route 28 bypass.

The bypass is a good plan, but it doesn’t really help Manassas Park commuters, Councilman Suhas Naddoni said.  People living in Manassas Park will still end up taking Route 28 and will still end up in traffic, he said.

 Mayor Frank Jones said a plan to expand the existing roadbed is the best option for moving traffic out of the localities and up toward Interstate 66 and Dulles.

 If implemented, Bull Run Crossing would have to be improved, the mayor added.

Council members agreed improving Route 28 has to be put back on the Virginia Department of Transportation’s six-year plan.

 It was in the plan at one time but, at some point, it was taken off and no one will say how or why, Jones said.

 Council is also in favor of implementing a temporary, but yet quicker solution to easing traffic on Route 28.

“Right now, there is no incentive to get people out of their cars,” Vice Mayor Bryan Polk said.

Jones said a bus traveling in a special bus lane along Route 28  sounds like a good idea.

“I would take a bus up to the Vienna metro stop,” Polk added.

 Route 28 was also part of the discussion council had earlier in the evening with Prince William County Supervisor Marty Nohe, who was present at Tuesday’s meeting.

 Nohe, who represents the Coles District which borders Manassas Park, said he gets angry phone calls from commuters about traffic on Route 28.

“There is no magic supervisor’s wand I can wave and make it go away,” Nohe said. “We spent 30 years allowing the problem to build. We can fix it faster than that, but it won’t be instantaneous.”

 Both Nohe and Manassas Park City Council agreed that all the jurisdictions along Route 28 should work together to solve the problem.

 In other news, city officials discussed with council plans to upgrade the audio and video equipment used for broadcasting city council meetings.

 Lana Conner, clerk to Manassas Park City Council and Michelle Quander-Collins, assistant to the city manager, are working together with the company CTSI who has a $26,978 contact with the city to perform the upgrade.

City employees did go out looking for quotes from other companies, but CTSI is the only one that responded.

 The audio and video system improvements include:

• An upgrade of the camera control console and a new digital recorder with a large hard drive that supports digital files.
• The replacement of the current microphones on the city council meeting table with new microphones that are less prone to interference.
• Wall- mounted volume control and two desktop speakers
• New cameras with zoom

The upgrades will make it possible for the city’s website to stream video of the council meetings.

The project is funded by money from the Comcast Cable Equipment Fund which has a balance of about $100,000, less the receipts Manassas Park submits to the company.

 With the receipts deducted, the fund contains about $53,000, Quander-Collins reported to council.

Comcast pays Manassas Park about $10,000 a year as part of its broadcasting contract with the city.