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A long-awaited pedestrian connection to Innovation Center Metro station is finally open, cutting some neighborhood trips from nearly three miles to just half a mile.
The illuminated, 10-foot-wide asphalt path and two pedestrian bridges were celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 28. The route connects the station’s north-side kiss-and-ride area with Farougi Court, Apgar Place and the Reflection Homes community.
Trips that previously required a 45- to 60-minute walk or bus ride can now take five to 10 minutes on foot, or even less by bicycle. Some nearby residents can reach the station in under three minutes.
James Bierman, the Fairfax County Board supervisor representing the Dranesville District, said the connection gives people in Dulles Green apartments, Reflection Homes and the Parcher Avenue area direct Metro access without driving around the station.
“It opens up the Metro to a ton of folks who now have an opportunity for car-less living,” Bierman said.
A connection residents sought for years
For more than a decade, residents argued that the Metro station visible from their homes should also be reachable on foot. The project emerged from the Herndon Metrorail Stations Access Management Study but encountered complicated land negotiations involving six properties.
To keep the work on schedule, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized the use of eminent domain. The design also had to limit its impact on the wooded valley and the Horsepen Creek watershed.
Herndon resident Mike Olson joined the station access study in 2014 after being appointed by then-Supervisor John Foust. Olson, who lives beside the project site, worked with county staff and other community representatives and followed construction from the groundbreaking onward.
The finished route includes two bridges, one of which stretches 367 feet and is the longest pedestrian bridge in the county, according to Fairfax County Department of Transportation project manager Sonia Shahnaj.
A commute transformed
Longtime residents John Hanchulak and Rachel Roberts said the path has already changed how their family reaches Metro.
Roberts previously drove about 15 minutes to the Wiehle-Reston East station for her commute to Washington, D.C. She described that drive as the worst part of her day and said the new path would have offered a much better start to her mornings.
Hanchulak said the connection has changed his wife’s life. During the opening celebration, their toddler son, Henry, tested the pavement on his tricycle. The family now plans to use the route for Metrorail trips to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Parking restrictions are intended to prevent the improved station access from turning nearby residential streets into commuter lots. From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, parking on Farougi Court, Apgar Place and portions of Parcher Avenue is limited to permit holders. The Board of Supervisors established those restrictions in 2022.
At the ceremony, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay joked that he arrived late after struggling to reach the event from the opposite side of the station—the same access problem the project was designed to solve. He connected the new route with the county’s housing affordability and environmental goals.
Transportation Director Greg Silverson credited cooperation among residents, county agencies, consultants and contractors for getting the complicated project completed.
The bridges were designed to preserve the high tree canopy above the valley and minimize disturbance to Horsepen Creek’s stream habitat. As the ceremony unfolded, two hawks circled above the treetops and the new bridge spanning the woods below.