"Somebody trying to turn left onto 66 eastbound basically couldn't see any oncoming vehicles on the right. So, they would get T-boned making that left turn there." That is how Carl Kaczmarek of the design firm Dewberry described the Exit 28 interchange to FauquierNow at a February 2024 meeting in the Marshall Community Center. He was talking about the place where traffic heading toward Marshall backed up and blocked the view for anyone turning left across it.
Construction began on Monday, Oct. 12, at the I-66 and Route 17 interchange just south of the village. The Virginia Department of Transportation expects to finish by Oct. 1, 2028. For anyone who drives Winchester Road every day, the project's main effect is that it takes the left turn away from the spots where left turns kept causing crashes, and it replaces that turn with a right turn plus a loop. That one design choice explains the roundabout, the RCUT, the new median at Carters Run Road and the change in your trip to the grocery store.
What the Old Diamond Was Getting Wrong
Exit 28 has been what engineers call a rural unsignalized diamond interchange. The ramps meet Route 17 at two intersections with no traffic lights, and drivers cross oncoming lanes to get where they're going. FauquierNow reported a letter to the Fauquier Board of Supervisors from Joseph Costello, then the Town of Culpeper's transportation planner, that counted 36 crashes and 42 injuries at the interchange over six years. The same letter cited an expected 63% drop in crashes from the redesign.
Queuing caused much of the trouble. According to the design team, traffic going from northbound Route 17 onto westbound I-66 regularly backed up through the eastbound ramp intersection. When that line of cars blocks the view, a left turn becomes a guess about what's coming. Each piece of the new design attacks that guess.
Two Fixes, One on Each Side of the Interstate
The project page puts the cost at $15.5 million: $3 million for preliminary engineering and $12.5 million for construction. Most of the money comes from Virginia's SMART SCALE program. That money pays for two different intersection types, one at each pair of ramps.
| Location | What changes | What it means behind the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| I-66 westbound ramps at Route 17 | Rebuilt as a roundabout | Traffic circulates one way around a central island. Entering drivers yield to cars already in the circle. |
| I-66 eastbound ramps at Route 17 | Reconfigured as a restricted crossing U-turn, or RCUT | Side-street drivers turn right first. To go left or straight, they make a U-turn at a median opening downstream. |
| Both ramp pairs | Crossovers removed, ramps lengthened | Fewer places where drivers cut across lanes, plus more room to merge. |
| Route 691, Carters Run Road | Directional median added | No more left turns onto Route 17. Drivers use a new U-turn farther south. |
The design did not start out split this way. VDOT Warrenton Resident Engineer Mark Nesbit told FauquierNow in 2024 that a roundabout had been proposed here about four years earlier and wasn't funded because of the cost, "so we scaled back to an R-CUT." The design VDOT is building uses both. The roundabout goes on the westbound side, where the design team said it would also cut the northbound backup. The RCUT goes on the eastbound side, where Nesbit said it would give drivers better visibility and lower the chance of angle crashes.
Carters Run Road Is Where Daily Habits Change
Most Marshall drivers will feel the change most at Route 691. Today, someone coming out of Carters Run Road can turn left and head north toward the village or the interstate. Once the directional median is in, that driver turns right onto Route 17 and comes back by way of a new U-turn to the south.
VDOT's materials don't pin down exactly where the U-turn will be. Nesbit described the turn lane as "roughly close to a thousand feet" at the 2024 meeting. A Marshall resident's Oct. 10 letter to the editor in FauquierNow used the same figure, about 1,000 feet south. The letter objects to the forced U-turn. It raises concerns about heavy equipment, high-speed traffic, drivers who aren't used to the layout, and construction delays. Those are one writer's views. They match the split FauquierNow heard in 2024, when some residents called the safety work overdue and others opposed losing the Route 691 left turn. Scott District Supervisor Ike Broaddus and Marshall District Supervisor Reagan Washer attended that meeting.
VDOT expected the pushback. "The R-CUT is a more difficult concept to understand the safety issues that we're mitigating," project manager John Rose told FauquierNow. "Once people drive an R-CUT they understand it better." He was saying that the extra distance on a drawing looks like delay, and that the trade only becomes clear once you have driven it. Public comment is closed. VDOT held a citizen information meeting on Feb. 20, 2024 and a public hearing on May 20, 2025.
Gold Cup Saturday Arrives Twelve Days In
The finished layout is years away, but the work zone is already in place. VDOT says one lane may be closed on northbound and southbound Route 17 during construction, and it tells drivers to expect delays and follow signs and traffic controls.
The first heavy-traffic day comes quickly. The 89th International Gold Cup runs Saturday, Oct. 24, at Great Meadow, 5089 Old Tavern Road in The Plains. Public gates open at 10 a.m. and close at 4:45 p.m. The official Gold Cup directions split arriving cars between the two nearby exits by gate, and police enforce the split.
- Gates 1 and 3, Members Hill. From Northern Virginia, Maryland and Winchester, take I-66 to Marshall Exit 28, go south on Route 17, turn left on Old Winchester Road, and continue through the stop sign. From Warrenton, come north on Route 17 and turn right on Old Winchester Road.
- Gate 8, South Rail. Take Exit 28 and go south on Route 17, then turn left into the gate. From Warrenton, come north on Route 17 and turn right into the gate.
- Gates 5, 7 and 9, North Rail. Take The Plains Exit 31 and go south on Old Tavern Road. Police will block access to these gates from Exit 28.
The directions also warn Members Hill traffic away from Exit 31, saying police will block access to Gates 1, 3, 2, 4 and 8 from there. That means every car headed to Members Hill or the South Rail uses Route 17 at Exit 28, the stretch where lane closures are now possible. The directions page says nothing about the construction. Until it does, race traffic and village errands share the same lanes that morning.
Great Meadow's calendar has more dates in the same weeks. Polo at Veterans Stadium runs Oct. 17 and Oct. 31, with gates at 5:30 p.m. and play at 7 p.m. The Veterans Cup, Polo with Purpose, is set for Nov. 8. These events are smaller than the Gold Cup. They still bring evening and weekend traffic to the area while the work zone is new.
What Nobody Has Published Yet
Some details residents will want aren't public yet.
- A staging calendar. VDOT has given a general lane-closure warning, but no phase-by-phase schedule.
- The exact U-turn location. The roughly 1,000-foot figure comes from 2024 meeting remarks and a resident's letter, not from a mapped VDOT drawing.
- The contractor. The project page lists cost, schedule and funding, but no builder.
- Weather. VDOT says all work depends on the weather, so the 2028 date is an estimate.
Until those details come out, the closest thing to live information is VDOT's Culpeper District. It posts local updates on X at @VaDOTCulp and on its Facebook group. 511 Virginia carries current conditions and traffic cameras, and you can also call 511 from any phone in the state.
For farms off Carters Run Road and properties along Winchester Road, the new loop is a real part of the daily drive. That includes trailer runs, deliveries and the trip into the village. If you're thinking about how Exit 28 affects a property you own or are considering, Kristin Dillon-Johnson knows these roads from the driver's seat and is glad to talk it through. Schedule a free consultation.