Route 28 (Virginia)

Route 28 (Virginia)
State	VA
Route	28
Type	VA
Length mi	58.42
Maint	Virginia Department of Transportation
Established	1928
Direction a	South
Terminus a	near Gainesville
Direction b	North
Terminus b	near Purcellville

Contents

Route 28 (Virginia) is a primary state highway running through Prince William County, Fairfax County and Loudoun County. The route connects suburban and exurban communities near Washington, D.C. with employment centers, transportation facilities and historic towns such as Gainesville, Chantilly, Herndon and Purcellville. It provides connections to major corridors including Interstate 66, Interstate 95, I-495 and U.S. 50 while serving as a multimodal spine for commuters, Dulles International Airport traffic and regional freight.

Route description

Route 28 begins near Gainesville at an interchange with U.S. 15 and proceeds north through Prince William County toward the Manassas National Battlefield Park area, intersecting local connectors to Manassas and Haymarket. The corridor traverses suburban Arlington-style mixed-use nodes in Fairfax County near Centreville and Chantilly, where it meets U.S. 50 and accesses Dulles Technology Corridor employment centers near Reston and Herndon. Continuing north into Loudoun County, Route 28 crosses the Potomac River watershed and serves industrial parks, W&OD Trail crossings and the historic town center of Purcellville. The highway provides multimodal connections to Metro station access points, Virginia Railway Express reverses and park-and-ride facilities serving Arlington National Cemetery-area commuters.

The corridor that became Route 28 originated as early 20th-century plank and gravel roads linking Manassas and Leesburg through agricultural lands owned by families tied to Montgomery County emigrants and veterans of the American Civil War. The route was designated in the 1920s amid statewide renumbering contemporaneous with projects led by the Virginia Department of Highways and federal initiatives following the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 and Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. Postwar suburbanization associated with the expansion of Washington, D.C. employment and the construction of Dulles International Airport prompted successive widenings and bypasses engineered under programs administered by the Virginia Department of Transportation and influenced by studies from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. In the late 20th century, regional growth spurred major reconstruction funded through local bond measures and public-private partnerships involving entities such as Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The corridor’s modernization paralleled projects on I-66 and upgrades tied to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles Airport modernization plans.

Route 28 intersects a series of arterial and interstate facilities enabling regional mobility: interchanges with U.S. 15 near Gainesville; junctions with I-66 near Centreville; connectivity to I-495 via feeder links to Fairfax County collector roads; grade-separated crossings at U.S. 50 in Chantilly; access ramps to SR 7 in Loudoun County near Sterling and Ashburn; and northern termini connecting to county-maintained roads approaching Purcellville and Leesburg. The route interfaces with park-and-ride nodes serving Virginia Railway Express lines and provides linkages to state and county arterial networks administered by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Traffic volumes along the corridor reflect commuter flows to Washington, D.C. and employment concentrations in the Dulles Technology Corridor, including high peak-direction congestion near U.S. 50 and the SR 7 interchange. Safety and capacity projects have addressed bottlenecks via widening, interchange reconfigurations, and auxiliary lane construction funded by local and state transportation packages supported by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and legislative appropriations from the Commonwealth of Virginia General Assembly. Measures implemented include managed intersections influenced by standards from the Institute of Transportation Engineers and signal coordination strategies consistent with guidance from the Federal Highway Administration. Corridor improvements have been coordinated with environmental reviews overseen by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to mitigate impacts on watersheds feeding the Potomac River and protected cultural resources listed with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Route 28 serves as a multimodal corridor for passenger services operated by agencies such as OmniRide (PRTC), Metrobus, Fairfax Connector, and Loudoun County Transit, linking commuter bus routes to Washington Metro stations and Virginia Railway Express platforms. The corridor supports last-mile freight movements for logistics centers serving clients such as national carriers operating from Dulles International Airport and regional distribution facilities near Ashburn and Sterling. Truck restrictions, designated freight routes, and truck parking policies are coordinated between the Virginia Department of Transportation, county transportation departments and regional planning bodies like the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to balance commercial access with commuter performance and community impacts.

Planned projects include capacity upgrades, signal modernization and transit-priority treatments coordinated through studies by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and local capital improvement plans adopted by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Proposals consider integration with expanded Metrorail service concepts, Silver Line extensions, enhanced bus rapid transit corridors influenced by precedents in Alexandria and Arlington County, and freight resiliency measures tied to regional supply chain strategies involving Dulles International Airport and interstate connectors. Environmental permitting and right-of-way acquisitions will involve coordination with federal agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state agencies such as the Virginia Department of Transportation.