By Brian Trompeter
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) “megaprojects” have expanded travel options for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians and the agency is hoping some additional Express Lanes will increase capacity and fill in missing links.
There currently are 94 miles’ worth of Express Lanes in Northern Virginia on Interstates 95, 395, 495 and 66, both inside and outside the Capital Beltway, which are run by three independent operators, said Michelle Shropshire, VDOT’s acting megaprojects director, during a Dec. 12 presentation to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ Transportation Committee.
Shropshire provided updates on a host of projects that are finished, under construction or the drawing board.
• The first 9 miles of the I-66 Outside the Beltway Express Lanes opened Sept. 12, 2022, and the remaining 13 miles on Nov. 22 that year.
Those lanes have shown solid success so far, handling more than 1 million trips per month, Shropshire said. These include more than 7,300 high-occupancy-vehicle trips per day with three or more people per vehicle, plus more than 800 daily motorcycle trips in September 2023.
Riders make about 1,400 free trips per day using Fairfax Connector and Omniride/PRTC buses that use the I-66 Express Lanes outside the Beltway, officials said. In addition, 23 Fairfax County Public Schools bus routes use those Express Lanes to transport in excess of 400 students twice daily.
In addition, the project included 11 miles of new bicycle and pedestrian trails. These segments, which opened in May and October this year, were interconnected with existing trail networks.
• There also are 3 more miles of Express Lanes coming, including 2.5 miles along the I-495 Express Lanes Northern Extension Project (495 NEXT) and I-95 Express Lanes/Opitz Boulevard ramp in Prince William County, which should are ready for vehicles in fall 2024.
The $660 million 495 NEXT Project is a partnership between VDOT and Transurban that will extend through 2087. The project is adding two Express Lanes in each direction between the Dulles Corridor interchange area and the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Project work crews now are relocating utilities, doing site grading, installing drainage, building retaining walls and putting in new and replacement sound barriers.
495 NEXT workers also are making progress on new bridges at Georgetown Pike, Live Oak Drive and Old Dominion Drive.
Project officials predict construction of the new lanes will be finished by late 2024 or early 2025, and that installation of new sound walls will be completed by mid-2025.
Officials hope to open the new 495 NEXT Express Lanes in late 2025, then finish a new bicycle/pedestrian trail in early 2026.
• VDOT and Transurban have executed a development-framework agreement to build 11 miles of new Express Lanes capacity that would allow bidirectional travel along existing 95 Express Lanes between the Franconia-Springfield Parkway in Fairfax County and Opitz Boulevard in Prince William County.
There would be three Express Lanes available in the peak direction and two in the non-peak, Shropshire said. Drivers’ top complaint about the current I-95 Express Lanes is they haven’t been able to use them when heading in the non-peak direction, she said.
If matters fall into place according to plans, the federal government will render its environmental-assessment decision about the project in June or July 2025, Transurban will submit a binding proposal to VDOT in September 2025 and the matter will go to financial closing in January 2026.
• VDOT also is undertaking the 495 Southside Express Lanes Study, which concerns building 11 miles of Express Lanes along the final missing segment of the Capital Beltway in Virginia between Springfield’s Mixing Bowl and a point just east of Maryland’s Route 210.
VDOT still is evaluating a range of alternatives for the project, including one or two Express Lanes in each direction and leaving the possibility for future rail transit in that area.
“As part of our study, we are not considering widening the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge and it is not feasible to relocate the barrier that separates the through and local lanes, due to some limitations with the drawbridge span on that structure,” Shropshire added.
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit (DRPT) has conducted a transit-and-transportation-demand study of the 495 Southside Express Lanes area and concluded bus service was more cost-effective than rail for moving a similar number of people in the corridor. But the study recommended that I-495 Southside corridor improvements not preclude rail.
VDOT will hold public hearings about the project next summer. The Commonwealth Transportation Board in fall 2024 will render its preferred alternative for the 495 Southside project and officials hope the federal government by late 2024 will give its environmental-assessment decision.
“I think the most important thing on the Southside lanes is to make it the least difficult possible to implement rail or expand transit,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D).
When the new Wilson Bridge was built in the early 2000s, transportation officials made many concessions to neighboring communities, including ones that would allow for possible future transit on the bridge without needing to widen it, McKay said.
“This is the only segment of interstate left in Fairfax County that has no transit benefit,” he said.
McKay added it also was essential to build bidirectional Express Lanes on I-95, but preferably not at the same time as the 495 Southside lanes.
