Fairfax County Parkway: New Route Number!

Have you see the new signs on the Fairfax County Parkway that say “Old 7100, New 286”? I noticed these signs a few weeks ago and wondered what was going on. Why would they bother changing the name of a road that’s been around for years? I’m sure a lot of you were wondering the same thing, so I decided to do some digging to find out. Back in February, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved the classification of three major roads (Fairfax County Parkway, Franconia-Springfield Parkway and Prince William Parkway) as primary roads. As primary roads, they are eligible to receive federal funding for paving, guardrails, bridge improvements and other projects. Federal funding tends to cover about 80% of the cost to maintain interstates and primary roads, with state funds picking up the remaining 20%. This is great news! If you’ve traveled on the Fairfax County Parkway recently, particularly at night, you have probably seen the paving crews out. It will nice to have smooth roads again! Because primary roads are named from 1-599, and secondary routes are 600 and above, the name changes and new signs were necessary.  So, from now on the Fairfax County Parkway (7100) will be known as Route 286, the Franconia-Springfield Parkway (7900) will be known as Route 289 and the Prince William Parkway (3000) will be known as Route 294.