Like many local and state officials in Virginia, the Trump administration appears to be growing impatient with a perceived lack of progress by Maryland to replace the American Legion Memorial Bridge.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced last week (Dec. 9) that the Federal Highway Administration will seek feedback and proposals on ways to accelerate the delivery of a new bridge in the hopes of relieving congestion on the Capital Beltway (I-495/I-270).
After more than three years of construction, the new Capital Beltway toll lanes in McLean will welcome their first drivers on Sunday (Nov. 23), just in time for next week’s Thanksgiving travel rush.
Though the start of tolling operations has been delayed by a day due to expected rain tonight (Friday), Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay and other officials gathered this morning for a ribbon-cutting ceremony in anticipation of the occasion at the Hyatt Regency hotel at Tysons Corner Center.
Update — The new I-495 Express Lanes are on track to open ahead of schedule on Saturday, Nov. 22, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced on Nov. 10.
In addition to two toll lanes in each direction, the opening will include dedicated ramps from the Dulles Toll Road to the northbound express lanes and between the express lanes and the GW Parkway.
The Virginia Department of Transportation is urging drivers to avoid traveling on southbound I-495 in McLean tonight (Thursday) while its crews finish realigning the highway.
Three southbound lanes will close to traffic, starting at 8:30 p.m. with a single left lane and continuing with two other lanes by 9:30 p.m. The closures will extend from Georgetown Pike to the area just south of the American Legion Bridge.
A key regional planning body voted today (Wednesday) to defer until at least 2026 any further consideration of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s plan to extend express lanes on the south side of the Capital Beltway (I-495) across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and into Maryland.
“The project is simply not ready,” said Eric Olson, a member of the Prince George’s County Council who sits on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Transportation Planning Board (TPB).
A call to address an apparent race on the Capital Beltway (I-495) turned into a lifesaving operation for the Virginia State Police last night (Sunday).
According to the VSP, its troopers were dispatched around 10:52 p.m. for a report of “multiple vehicles driving recklessly” near southbound I-495 and Braddock Road in the Springfield area.
Drizzly overnight weather contributed to a fatal motorcycle crash on the Capital Beltway near West Falls Church, police say.
Troopers responded to the ramp from I-495 North to eastbound Route 50 (Arlington Blvd) around 5:38 a.m. for the crash, according to the Virginia State Police.
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.
Despite a full-court press from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the future of its plan to extend express lanes on the south side of the Capital Beltway (I-495) remains up in the air as the deadline for a decision looms.
The project to add 11 miles of toll roads connecting Springfield with Prince George’s County over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is a “critical” piece of transportation planning, a top VDOT official told members of the D.C. region’s Transportation Planning Board (TPB) on July 16.
The I-495 Northern Extension (495 NEXT) project will introduce another change to the traffic patterns in McLean tonight (Wednesday).
Construction crews are scheduled to begin work this week on an extension of the northbound I-495 (Capital Beltway Inner Loop) ramp to southbound George Washington Memorial Parkway (GW Parkway), requiring the highway to be narrowed.
