Virginia’s plan to widen I-495 with privately financed, toll-based express lanes in the Woodrow Wilson Bridge corridor continues to get a decidedly mixed reception from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
On one side of the debate, Board Chairman Jeff McKay believes the project is “essential,” but he conceded at a meeting of the board’s transportation committee last Tuesday (Oct. 29) that “not everyone feels that way.”
Among those decidedly not feeling “that way” is Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck, who says his constituents living in the vicinity are not convinced adding toll lanes across the bridge will make their lives better.
“In general the community is not supportive of this, and I don’t know that can be changed,” he said.
At the committee meeting, Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) officials gave a status update on the proposed 11-mile Southside express lanes project, which would start just east the I-95/I-395/I-495 Springfield interchange and cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge before ending at Maryland Route 210.
Working on a federally required study since 2022, planners have offered a number of options, with either one or two buffer-separated, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in each direction, leaving space for the potential of future Metrorail service.
No price tags currently are associated with the project, VDOT’s Michelle Shropshire told the Fairfax County board.
As is the case with the northern expansion of the I-495 Express Lanes to the American Legion Bridge that’s currently under construction, there’s suspense over whether Maryland officials will be supportive of the Virginia-led initiative.
Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, who chairs the transportation committee and has dealt with Maryland leaders on the 495 NEXT project in McLean, said those state officials might be key to making this project work.
“I really, really hope Maryland gets on board,” he said, acknowledging that “there are other outstanding issues that need to be studied.”
“Public outreach and public engagement are absolutely critical,” Bierman said.
Skepticism of traffic benefits, Maryland support
McKay said VDOT officials need to be prepared for Maryland leaders not to play ball by developing an alternative that would terminate on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. If they wait too long to address that possibility, “we’ll be too late to salvage what’s left of the project,” he contended.
Storck said proponents of the project must first focus on solving existing problems.
“We need to address the absolute gridlock we have now,” he said, pointing to traffic that spills over into adjacent arterial roads and his constitutents’ neighborhoods.
That concern is shared by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, an advocacy group that supports more accessible and inclusive communities.
“That the additional capacity of the HOT lanes would generate more traffic trying to travel to and from the lanes via connecting roads like Route 1, Telegraph and Van Dorn wouldn’t be surprising,” Bill Pugh, a senior policy fellow at the organization, said in a statement released by CSG after the committee meeting.
VDOT’s presentation to the Board of Supervisors indicated that the proposed Southside express lanes would improve travel times on the Capital Beltway during the morning rush hour in 2050 compared to what commuters would see if nothing is done. The afternoon rush hour would be more of a mixed bag, particularly for westbound local drivers.
“Decades of academic studies show that bigger highways generate more traffic over time, a proven phenomenon called induced demand,” Pugh said. “Yet VDOT refuses to acknowledge the problems of endless highway widening.”
Bridge designed for eventual expansion, McKay says
McKay, however, believes adding HOT lanes would help fulfill the potential of the two-span, 12-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge, a $2.4 billion replacement of an early-1960s bridge of the same name that had become outdated and couldn’t handle 21st-century travel volumes.
The new bridge opened in 2008.
“If we just rest on our laurels and do nothing, we will have negated the benefits that bridge brought to us,” McKay said. “It is my hope that this project stays on track.”
That may be decided by the regional Transportation Planning Board, which coordinates long-range projects across the D.C. metro area.
A vote by that board on the project is anticipated for late 2025. While the panel does not control funding decisions, its opposition could well prove a death knell — a scenario that almost happened with Maryland’s side of the northern I-495 toll lanes.
Instead, the Maryland project stalled when toll lanes operator Transurban backed out in March 2023. Maryland began survey work earlier this year for a new plan to replace the American Legion Bridge and address congestion on its side of the Beltway.
Winning over skeptics of the I-495 Southside project in the coming year could require a full-court press on outreach, Storck told VDOT officials and his fellow supervisors.
“We need to move the conversation in a way people feel like it truly could be a win-win,” he said. “Right now, it doesn’t feel that way.”
Metro plan questioned
As for eventual Metro service across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, VDOT officials said there would be room for tracks if the one-lane-per-direction option is selected. If two lanes in each direction are authorized, it would come with the understanding that they might be scaled down to accommodate later transit service.
“We have a number of ways we can commit to this and meet that commitment,” Shropshire said.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity suggested it’s premature to start considering Metro across the bridge, given financial issues facing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which operates the transit network.
“With the WMATA system in the shape it is today, is that ever going to be a reality or a possibility?” he mused at the meeting.
He suggested it would be better to ramp up planning for bus rapid transit (BRT) service in the corridor.
