Fairfax County’s new Public Safety Headquarters is a nine-story building with future public access from Government Center Parkway and frontage on Monument Drive and Random Hills Road. An adjacent five- story parking garage is included in the project. The building will serve as the new headquarters for the county’s Police Department and Fire and Rescue Department. The county hired a design team led by HOK to move the project through the planning, entitlement, and schematic design phases. Gorove Slade’s work included a review and assessment of vehicular site access and circulation, an assessment of parking requirements, and the preparation of a traffic impact study.
Site Access and circulation reviews were conducted in an iterative fashion, as Gorove Slade provided comments and modifications on the access schemes developed by the team. Specifically, the firm analyzed the impacts of the additional traffic generated on the existing two-lane roadway that supports parallel parking. Additionally, the firm examined additional secured access to the site from Legato Road and whether turn lanes were warranted.
The firm prepared a summary of the anticipated supply of on-site parking given the layout of the proposed garage along with the capacity of existing parking facilities, considering compact vehicle spaces, handicap spaces, reserved spaces, and other special use spaces. Gorove Slade also prepared a parking demand analysis showing how parking demand will distribute over a typical weekday and comparing that to the supply of available parking.
To prepare the traffic impact study, the firm:
- Collected morning and afternoon peak period traffic data at six intersections near the new headquarters site.
- Analyzed future traffic conditions assuming an increase in the volume of background traffic as well as new vehicle trips generated by the headquarters building.
- Summarized the findings in a report and technical appendix submitted for review by both Fairfax County and the Virginia Department of Transportation.