Transportation staff from Maryland crossed the Potomac River last week to gather data in McLean for their long-planned American Legion Bridge replacement project.
According to a notice shared by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) sent a field team last Thursday (May 30) to investigate the drainage along Live Oak Drive.
Maryland workers are expected to return to Virginia during the weeks of June 10 and June 17 for a bathymetric survey that will assess the “depth and underwater features of the Potomac River.”
“The fieldwork is necessary to advance the design to a stage where a contractor can be procured to complete the design and construct the project,” an MDOT SHA spokesperson said. “This fieldwork is also crucial for MDOT’s potential to secure a federal discretionary grant, as it reduces project risks and demonstrates the State’s readiness to implement the project — a key factor in USDOT grant evaluations.”
Maryland and Virginia committed to replacing the aging American Legion Bridge — the only direct road connection between Fairfax and Montgomery counties — under a $1 billion “Beltway Accord” announced in 2019 by then-governors Ralph Northam and Larry Hogan. In an effort to ease congestion, the new bridge would be widened with two toll lanes in each direction.
However, uncertainty about whether Maryland would follow through on widening its side of the Capital Beltway became a source of anxiety for Virginia residents and elected officials, even as construction began on VDOT’s I-495 Northern Extension (495 NEXT) project in March 2022.
Comments at public meetings indicating that Maryland would be responsible for some construction in Virginia — specifically, work to tie the new bridge into I-495 — alarmed some opponents to VDOT’s project, which is extending the I-495 Express Lanes from Tysons to the George Washington Memorial Parkway in McLean.
After toll lanes operator Transurban pulled out of Maryland’s project, though, the state went back to the drawing board, recently applying for a federal grant to fund the new American Legion Bridge and an initial phase of toll lanes on I-495 and I-270.
Under new Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, MDOT has emphasized potential multimodal improvements that its project could bring, but the plan for widening the bridge appears to be essentially the same as in the Beltway Accord, which proposed “new bicycle and pedestrian access” as well as toll lanes.
“The American Legion Bridge will be replaced with a wider structure that includes a separated bicycle-pedestrian path, two new high-occupancy toll lanes in each direction to support reliable transit and carpooling, and new shoulders to enhance safety,” MDOT SHA said.
MDOT SHA says the project design is funded, but for construction, it’s seeking over $3 billion in federal funding, incuding $2.3 billion from the federal Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program and an additional $864 million from other sources.
In total, the department says it will need $4.032 billion.
“With the necessary funding, construction could begin in 2026 and the bridge could open to traffic in 2032,” MDOT SHA said.
If Maryland stays on that timeline, it won’t start construction on the American Legion Bridge and its side of the Beltway until after VDOT anticipates opening its extended I-495 toll lanes in December 2025.
Photo via MDOT
