It was a day years in the making, one Prince William County residents (not to mention all those thousands of northern Virginians who traveled from the outer suburbs in the direction of Washington DC and back again) had long anticipated.

On Thursday, July 9, a ceremonial ribbon cutting marked this momentous occasion.

With but a few finishing touches that remain, the Route 29 and Linton Hall Road interchange project in Gainesville is complete. The $230 million project successfully eliminated an angled railroad crossing near the Interstate 66 juncture that many residents and county officials deemed dangerous and “a traffic headache.”

Read more, as reported by WTOP’s Max Smith:

The following text was originally published by WTOP on July 9, 2015.

Prince William County Supervisor Jeanine Lawson describes the opening as “manna from heaven.” She says former supervisor John Stirrup described the old Route 29 and railroad crossings as something like the Berlin Wall, and she agrees that it became something no one wanted to cross.

She has lived in the area for about 20 years.

Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne also attended the ribbon cutting, and pointed to the impact that clearing up the backups onto I-66 can have on the larger regional traffic flow.

“This eliminates the at-grade railroad crossing … safety has been improved, and in this rapidly growing area its unlocking the stop-and-go traffic on [Route 29 and Linton Hall Rd],” he says.

State Sen. Dick Black gave an anecdote about being in the car with kids before the changes — when the kids would start counting the number of freight cars going by.

“And then, about that time, the train stops and backs up and you start counting all over again,” he says. “You know what that does to traffic congestion.”

Also, the changes leave room for Norfolk Southern to add another track under the overpasses that could not only help with freight congestion, but also could provide extra track slots if VRE service is extended to Gainesville and Haymarket.

The completed Linton Hall Road interchange offers major traffic relief for residents of Prince William County.

Anybody who’s at all familiar with life in northern Virginia knows that traffic headaches are a dime a dozen. But not anymore, at least not in Gaineswille where Route 29 meets Linton Hall Road.

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Completed Linton Hall Rd Interchange Offers Traffic Relief for Gainesville Residents