Sept. 4, 2002
The $3.8 million Wiehle Avenue extension opened to car traffic on Friday morning after a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the road's new bridge over Sugarland Run Creek, completing a four-lane divided roadway connection from Reston Avenue to Dranesville Road.
The newest portion of Wiehle Avenue, measuring 3,500 feet, connects Dranesville Road to the west to Fairfax County Parkway to the east. The project also includes two new traffic signals at the intersections of Dranesville Road and Cassia Street.
Del. Tom Rust (R-86th), the former Herndon Mayor, Supervisor Stuart Mendelsohn (R-Dranesville) and Katherine Hanley, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors were all on hand to open up the latest extension to the four-lane east-west connector between Herndon and neighboring Reston before a small crowd of curious neighbors and elected officials.
"This is a small piece of the county's transportation puzzle, but the Wiehle Avenue connection will significantly improve and relieve congestion in this part of the world and this corner of Fairfax County," Hanley said. "I look forward to coming out here and seeing people drive up and down, as we did with the parkway."
In his remarks, Mendelsohn thanked the county staff and Virginia Department of Transportation for their hard work in getting the latest section opened ahead of schedule and before the busy Labor Day holiday and the first day of school. "This will be a major improvement for the town of Herndon and the surrounding area."
Funding for the project was initially approved by Fairfax County voters as part of the April 1988 Transportation Bond Referendum, but full construction funding was not approved by the Board of Supervisors until 1997, according to county officials.
"Many of us here in Herndon wondered if this project would ever happen," Rust, the former Herndon mayor, said, joking with Mendelsohn. "But I had faith in you, Stu."