Areas · county desk
Reel pickup in Fairfax County: the Dulles corridor to the Springfield interchange
FAIRFAX, Va. — The desk collects empty cable reels and delivers spools across Fairfax County, the largest jurisdiction on its map by population. Reels here come mostly from offices, apartments and industrial parks in the Dulles corridor and Chantilly, and from the I-95 corridor in the south.
From the reel desk · Checked 9 November 2026
Schematic line map, not to survey: Fairfax County marked, with I-66, Dulles Toll Road, Route 28, I-95 drawn heavier. The Potomac, the Anacostia, the District line and the Beltway are drawn for bearings.
Fact box: Fairfax County
- Main corridors
- Capital Beltway, I-66, I-95, Dulles Toll Road, Route 28, US-50
- Industrial areas
- Chantilly and the Route 28 corridor; Springfield and Lorton
- Broadband
- Virginia BEAD: over $545 million statewide
- Town pages
- 5
Two corridors
Fairfax County’s reel supply follows two lines on the map. In the northwest, the Dulles corridor runs from Tysons out along the Dulles Toll Road and the Silver Line through Reston and Herndon to Dulles Airport, with Chantilly and the Route 28 industrial parks just to the south. In the south, the I-95 corridor runs from the Springfield interchange through Lorton toward Prince William. Between them are older suburbs where the work is renovation and infill.
Chantilly and Route 28
The flat land around Route 28 and US-50 in Chantilly holds warehouses, contractor shops, flex buildings and data rooms, and it borders Loudoun’s data-centre corridor. Contractor yards here can collect reels from jobs on both sides of the county line, and the flat sites make big pickups easy.
Offices and apartments
Reston, Herndon and Tysons have seen steady mixed-use construction near Silver Line stations. High-rise residential and office work produces building wire on small and mid-size reels, plywood reels, and the larger reels from risers and switchgear feeders. Office-to-residential conversions add more.
Springfield and Lorton
The south of the county is a mix of logistics, government work and new housing. Springfield sits at the junction of I-95, I-395 and the Beltway; Lorton has warehouses and industrial land along I-95 and Route 1. Construction and utility jobs along this corridor leave the usual mix of reels.
Fibre
Virginia’s broadband program, approved in November 2025, puts over $545 million toward more than 133,000 unserved locations statewide, with about $430 million in private match. Most of those locations are rural and outside Fairfax, but the contractors doing the work are often based in Northern Virginia, and their yards fill with fibre reels between jobs.
How pickups work here
Fairfax traffic decides the day. Pickups in the Dulles corridor and Chantilly usually happen together; the south of the county is a separate trip. For an office or apartment site, the desk will ask about loading docks and garage clearances. For a Chantilly yard with room, a monthly pickup is common.
Buyers
The county’s buyers are mostly homeowners who want table and patio reels, landscapers, and small contractors who want working reels.
Town pages
Five Fairfax places have their own pages: Chantilly, Herndon, Reston, Springfield and Lorton.
Sending a request from Fairfax County
- Count and measure. Count the reels and measure the largest flange edge to edge across the face. A photo with the tape in it is better than a guess.
- Check the build. Nailed lumber, plywood sheet, steel or plastic. Look for a stencil or tag naming the maker and the reel number.
- Set aside steel and tagged returnables with their serial numbers. Those go back to the maker, not to the desk.
- Say where they stand: yard, dock, garage level, alley or curb, plus clearance, gate hours, badging or escort a driver needs.
- Say what loads them: forklift, pallet jack, loader, ramp, or only people. Reels over 42 inches weigh more than 100 lb empty.
- Say how often: one time, weekly, monthly or at each job close-out.
- Buying instead? Give the flange and height you want, how many, and how the reel gets from the truck to where it will sit.
- No form handy? Email info@dcwoodenspools.com with the same details and a few photos.
Reels you are likely to have
| Reel | Build | Flange | Traverse | Drum | Lb | Usually carries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-5 | Nailed wood | 23 | 17 | 12 | 34 | Copper building wire, grounding |
| A-10 | Nailed wood | 30 | 22 | 16 | 66 | Service drop, bare aluminium |
| N-24 | Nailed wood | 36 | 28 | 14 | 83 | Insulated and multiplex cable |
| A-29 | Nailed wood | 42 | 28 | 21 | 154 | Overhead conductor, feeders |
| A-38 | Nailed wood | 48 | 28 | 24 | 212 | Aluminium and ACSR, large feeders |
| A-62 | Nailed wood | 60 | 28 | 28 | 397 | Utility conductor |
| A-76 | Nailed wood | 66 | 28 | 30 | 473 | Heavy conductor |
| S-120 | Steel, returnable | 84 | 36 | 42 | 895 | Transmission and medium voltage |
Other makers' reels differ by an inch or two. All flange sizes · How to measure
Questions the desk gets
Does the desk collect in Tysons and Fairfax City too?
Yes. The town pages cover the busiest places, but the whole county is on the desk's map.
Are fibre contractors' reels accepted?
Yes, including plywood and small reels, which maker programs do not take.
Sources
Each opened and read on 9 November 2026.
- Virginia DHCD, federal approval of Virginia's BEAD Final Proposal (19 November 2025): over $545 million to 23 providers for more than 133,000 unserved locations
- Loudoun County, Transmission Lines in Loudoun County: status of Aspen to Golden, Golden to Mars, BECO to Firehouse, Evergreen Mills, Global Plaza Extension, Mars to Wishing Star and the Potomac Edison Goose Creek rebuild