Mason’s Mortarboard

Mason will soon be among an exclusive group of universities offering on-campus faculty and staff housing. Masonvale, which will eventually boast 150 homes of various sizes, will have the first 10 homes ready for occupancy by the end of July. Another 40 will be ready less than a month later.

But construction will reach beyond the borders of the new community. As part of the Masonvale project, the university will give the bordering Roberts Road a much-needed make over.

To make the area safer for pedestrians as well as vehicles, Roberts Road will be realigned, and extensive improvements will be made at the Shenandoah River Lane intersection. The improved intersection will feature a right-turn lane from Shenandoah onto Roberts Road, as well as right and left turn lanes on Roberts Road.

Further north on Roberts Road, Mason will create an entrance to Masonvale with additional turn lanes into the community to maintain traffic flow. Furthermore, Mason will build a continuation of the Fairfax County’s pedestrian trail along Roberts Road.

Roberts Road will soon be sufficiently equipped with turn lanes much like these.

The narrow, yet well-traveled Roberts Road will require a great deal of tree pruning and removal. The tree removal will begin in late July and last approximately one month.  Project managers assure the community that traffic will not be affected in any way during that time.

However, the grading and utility work beginning in early August is likely to cause occasional lane closures. This work will be done by companies outside of Mason such as Verizon, Washington Gas and Virginia Power, making it difficult to predict a specific traffic schedule at this time.

The entire project is expected to be complete by early January 2010.

There was a time when it seemed every road on campus was being worked on. But as a new school year approaches (I know it’s only June, but still), much of the road work is finishing up.

The major road that will open up at the end of this week will be the new George Mason Boulevard that runs between campus and downtown Fairfax. For about the last 15 years, the City of Fairfax had been planning to permanently close a portion of University Drive adaject to the new road. Friday, June 19 will be the day they open’er up.

Another notable road that will soon open (date TBD) will be the old portion of Patriot Circle between the new Rappahannock River Parking Deck and the new student housing. The road was closed off during the construction of the two structures, but will soon reopen, essentially reconnecting Patriot CIRCLE. However, I’m told that given the amount of speed humps, stop signs and pedestirans, drivers will be more inclined to continue driving around the north side of the parking deck (the old Spur Road now named University Drive).

And this just in – the “connector road” between Rte 123 and the Patriot Circle roundabout (built in conjunction with the Mason Inn) will be open to ALL traffic come this fall; not just construction vehicles, as was previously discussed.

All of these roads will surely come in handy when 20,000 students once again decend onto campus.