By Brian Trompeter
Northern Virginia’s ongoing investments in transportation infrastructure are positioning the region well for moving people and fostering future economic growth, panelists said at a recent Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance forum in Tysons.
“Last year was a great year for transportation,” said NVTA president Jason Stanford, citing completion of Phase 2 of Metrorail’s Silver Line and commencement of the 495 Express Lanes Northern Extension (495 NEXT) Project.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments predicts that half of the jobs coming to the Washington region over the next 25 years will be in Northern Virginia and this likely is in part because of the area’s strong transportation network, Stanford said at the forum, which was held April 21 at the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters.
“We continue to be national leaders,” said Virginia Deputy Secretary of Transportation John Lawson, noting that the commonwealth’s roads are top-rated and its port is the nation’s most productive.
“We view our transportation assets as engines for economic development,” Lawson said.
Northern Virginia is home to 2.1 million people and 15,000 of the commonwealth’s 60,000 lane miles, said John Lynch, the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) district administrator for the region.
Among VDOT’s initiatives in Arlington are renovations to the Rosslyn tunnel, the 34th Street bridge over I-395 and Route 1 upgrades in Crystal City. In Fairfax County, VDOT recently dedicated a pedestrian bridge over I-495 in Tysons and will complete its Route 7 widening between Tysons and Loudoun County in spring 2024, Lynch said.
Other planned improvements in Fairfax County include widenings of Route 29 and the Fairfax County Parkway and upgrades on Popes Head Road. The agency also next year hopes to complete a study on 495 Express Lanes Southside, which would run between Springfield’s Mixing Bowl and the Wilson Bridge, Lynch said.
VDOT officials also are examining the possibility of adding lanes to a 12-mile section of the I-95 Express Lanes between Springfield and Dale City in order to make the stretch bidirectional, rather than either north- or southbound depending on the time of day. VDOT leaders hope to execute an agreement and have the lanes built in six or seven years, Lawson said.
VDOT officials are working with their counterparts in Maryland to ensure that I-495 north of the American Legion Bridge gets Express Lanes that will match up with those being constructed as part of the 495 NEXT project, Lynch said.
“Hopefully, we’ll get everything on the Maryland side updated as well,” he said.
Transportation upgrades shouldn’t be confined to roads, however, said D.J. Stadtler, executive director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. Given the expected population growth in coming years, Virginia’s road congestion will not be lessened, so further rail investments will be needed to move people, he said.
“If you put trains in place when people want to take them, they’ll take them,” he said.
Railway ridership on Amtrak from downstate to the Washington area has more than recovered from its pandemic shock and now is setting records, but there’s a choke point between Arlington and Washington, D.C., that must be dealt with, Stadtler said.
“The only way to get more trains is to solve the bottleneck at Long Bridge,” he said.
The agency hopes to break ground soon on a fourth track in Alexandria and build a flyover by 2026, Stadtler said.
“It’s all about adding capacity,” he said. “We’re hoping to separate passenger and freight tracks in Alexandria.”
Metrorail is another major player in the region’s transportation network, and officials are grappling with financing those capital improvements, as well as a host of other problems.
“The issues clearly go beyond funding,” Lawson said. “We need real, long-term solutions.”
Inflation is clobbering costs involved with many transportation projects, the panelists said. VDOT recently increased its maintenance budget by $80 million to handle some of those expenses, Lawson said.
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority in 2018 budgeted for 3.5-percent inflation, but that figure now stands at 11 percent, Stadtler said.
“We went from having a fully funded portfolio to having a shortfall,” he said, but added that agency officials “don’t expect much more volatility.”
Speakers at the forum also underscored the need for roadway safety. Last year, 956 people nationwide lost their lives in work-zone incidents, said Brett McKenzie, government-relations and public-affairs manager for Transurban USA.
In 2022, 1,005 people died on Virginia’s highways and another 7,000 sustained serious injuries, Lawson said.
“Safety is our top priority,” he said. “We have to look at human nature. Sometimes you just need to slow down and think about what you’re doing.”
