Additional Commuter Parking Spaces to Come in 2012

Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean T. Connaughton announced today Prince William County would be seeing construction of a 600-parking space park-and-ride lot at Telegraph Road in the next year.

The Telegraph Road parking lot is the former Potomac Rappahanock Transportation Commission parking lot and it is located less than a quarter of a mile from the popular Horner Road commuter parking lot.

“These are making additional improvements,” said Secretary Connaughton. ”We need to make sure that we keep the capacity that we have.”

Since the reduction of 700 spaces at the , the county has been looking for a way to make up the difference.

Virginia Department of Transportation said that construction of the Telegraph Road lot would cost $7.2 million and would take about a year to construct.

“We want all the access to be safe,” said Director of Prince William County Transportation Tom Blaser. “We want to do it right with lighting and safe pedestrian access."

Secretary Connaughton said that the state would invest $7.8 million in total to help alleviate commuter concerns countywide. 

The Telegraph announcement coincides with an official announcement of an additional 370 commuter parking spaces at First Baptist Church in Woodbridge, which will be open for commuters to use on March 14.

Blaser said that the county has inked a ; Virginia Department of Transportation has also pledged that it would fund the church lease for up to five years.

Secretary Connaughton also said that in the longer term, there are plans for thousands of commuter parking spaces along the Interstate 95 corridor that would accompany the High Occupancy Transportation (HOT) Lanes project.

Chairman Corey Stewart also noted that two-thirds of the population of Prince William County commutes mostly north on I-95 and that there is a need to continue to focus on commuting.