Fairfax supervisors on Tuesday (Sept. 16) informally confirmed their support of the Interstate 495 Southside Express Lanes project as it moves toward a make-or-break regional vote next month.
Despite concerns about specifics of the 11-mile-long toll-lanes proposal across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, even the most skeptical supervisors said they supported keeping the project moving through the review process.
Controversial plans to add new express lanes onto I-495 are heading to public review starting today (Monday).
The plan is to extend the I-495 Express Lanes from Springfield into Prince George’s County, Maryland. The study area spans approximately 11 miles along the southern edge of I-495 — the last section of the Capital Beltway in Virginia without toll lanes, with construction underway on a northern extension in McLean.
A recent briefing from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) did little to quell questions and concerns from regional leaders about a proposal to extend the I-495 Express Lanes from Springfield into Prince George’s County, Maryland.
The Southside Express Lanes project is a “complex and lengthy” undertaking, VDOT Northern Virginia District Megaprojects Director Michelle Shropshire told the D.C. region’s Transportation Planning Board (TPB) at a meeting yesterday (Tuesday).
The Fairfax Board of Supervisors recently got a preview of what future transit connections between Tysons and Maryland could look like.
At a transportation committee meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 31), Todd Horsley, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s director of Northern Virginia Transit Programs, presented a study of how transit could make use of the I-495 Express Lanes being extended from Springfield across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
