Virginia Manor Road

The extensions of Virginia Manor Road East and West are two individual tasks within one contract. The goals of this project were to provide improved traffic capacity, relieve congestion, enhance safety, and provide systemic access to regional roadways. Early on, significant challenges and issues surfaced including downstream flooding events along Route 1 due to the large amount of uncontrolled waters. Another challenge was to present cost-effective solutions to meet the goals of the project while also incorporating environmental considerations into the design. In addition to the new Maryland Department of the Environment Stormwater Management regulations, which require Best Management Practices (BMPs) to the Maximum Extent Practicable (MEP), a 100-year control was required. When developing each of these design solutions, the Soltesz team considered the cost of maintenance – a significant, long-term budget concern.

A study conducted by Soltesz at the beginning of the project incorporated the routing effects of numerous regional and built stormwater facilities and culverts. While the team determined that floodplains had little impact on the proposed road sections, the investigations did offer insight into mitigation measures to alleviate the Route 1 flooding, which Soltesz was able to incorporate into their stormwater management design. Addressing the 100-year control requirement, devises were designed to bypass the 100-year storm through the storm drain and was controlled in the 2 ponds incorporated in the west side. Within this portion of the road – a divided 4-lane roadway with acceleration, deceleration and left turn lanes – Soltesz clustered the ESDs along one side. By clustering the ESDs, Soltesz was able to combine storm drain outfalls through the ESDs in lieu of a typical roadway storm drainage to a regional pond saving construction costs and maintenance costs. As an added benefit, landscaping was also clustered within the ESDs preventing unwanted encroachment by invasive species.