When the newly-built Battlefield Parkway interchange at Virginia Route 7 opens Monday, in Leesburg, it will spell the end of the final traffic light stopping drivers on one of the area’s busiest commuter routes.

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the new interchange will allow drivers on Route 7 to smoothly exit, and travel up-and-over the state highway on a new Battlefield Parkway bridge. The intersection of Battlefield Parkway at Route 7 has been closed since July 2020.

Opening the interchange also will prompt the removal of the traffic signal at nearby Cardinal Park Drive, the final light stopping drivers on Route 7.

In the past four years, traffic lights have been removed in Loudoun County at Ashburn Village Boulevard, Belmont Ridge Road and Lexington Drive, in an effort to improve the commute. More than 100,000 daily trips are taken on Route 7 in and out of Leesburg.

When the signal at Cardinal Park Drive is removed on Monday, it will mean a stoplight-free 30-mile stretch of Route 7 from Clarke County’s town of Berryville to Countryside Boulevard in Loudoun County’s Sterling.

The project includes a shared-use path, sidewalk, pedestrian signals and lighting along Battlefield, which will be completed this summer. New auxiliary lanes along eastbound Route 7 between the Leesburg Bypass and Rivercreek Parkway/Crosstrail Boulevard are expected to be completed this fall.

The $77.3 million project includes funds from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, federal, state, Loudoun County and the Town of Leesburg. The project is overseen by the Virginia Department of Transportation.