Utility relocation will wait until new year
By Monty Tayloe
Utility relocation in Tysons Corner, part of the first phase of the Dulles rail project, will not start until after the new year.
Marcia McAllister, project spokeswoman, said some survey work will begin over the next four weeks, but the "actual relocation work will begin after the holidays."
The survey crews are not expected to have an impact on Tysons Corner traffic, and no roads or lanes will be closed for that aspect of the project.
The actual relocation, when it starts sometime after the new year, will not be as delicate. When Washington Gas, the first utility involved, begins the process of moving its gas lines, there will be extensive digging and the gradual closing of the much-traveled service roads in Tysons.
That work was originally slated to begin in September. With the work delayed until now, rail planners had been indicating that the relocation – and the road closures that go along with it – would coincide with Tysons' seasonally terrible holiday traffic. Now, that won't be the case.
"We didn't want to start utility relocation during the holidays," McAllister said.
Neither did utility Washington Gas.
"Washington Gas will hold off on work because they would be conflicting with holiday shoppers," said Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Joan Morris.
The rail project has been waiting for VDOT to issue permits to begin the relocation and those have now been approved.
Although survey work is beginning, no firm date for the beginning of the actual digging has been set, beyond the fact that it will be in 2008.
When that date is known, the rail project will release specifics about the project schedule and road closures.
The work will begin in front of Koons Ford where Route 123 crosses over the Leesburg Pike and, as service roads are closed for utility relocation, they will not be reopened. Eventually, Route 7 will be widened in Tysons Corner to take up the slack.