The extended I-66 Express Lanes outside the Capital Beltway will open ahead of schedule, the Virginia Department of Transportation says.
Previously scheduled to arrive in December, the lanes will open in the westbound direction from I-495 in Dunn Loring to Route 28 in Centreville as soon as Saturday, Nov. 19, VDOT said in a news release snuck in just before a three-day weekend.
Starting next week, all drivers traveling north on the Capital Beltway through Tysons will share the same exit to get to the westbound Dulles Toll Road.
The existing Exit 45 will be closed around Wednesday, Nov. 16, so construction can begin on a new bridge for the Beltway (I-495) over the toll road ramps, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced Thursday (Nov. 3).
A new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians is connecting two parts of Tysons previously separated by the Beltway.
The new bridge helps provide a link between the residential communities east of the Beltway to the Tysons Corner Center mall.
The ongoing widening of I-495 from Tysons to McLean will require the permanent taking of 1.15 acres from Scott’s Run Nature Preserve.
As compensation, the Virginia Department of Transportation has proposed building a new park for the Fairfax County Park Authority on a 1.83-acre site at the corner of Georgetown Pike and Balls Hill Road that it currently uses as a maintenance yard.
A cell tower by the Capital Beltway in McLean must be removed before the end of this year to make way for the road’s widening, leaving Fairfax County and state transportation leaders scrambling to prevent future service disruptions.
The 135-foot-tall monopole stands right next to I-495 at the Old Dominion Drive bridge, which will be replaced by a new two-lane bridge with a shared-use path as part of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s I-495 Northern Extension (495 NEXT) project.
Drivers headed east on Route 7 in Reston can now get a small taste of what the road will be like once it’s fully widened.
A third eastbound travel lane opened along a 2-mile stretch of Route 7 (also known as Leesburg Pike) from Reston Avenue to Riva Ridge Drive on Friday (Sept. 30), the Virginia Department of Transportation announced.
Construction is ramping up today (Sept. 14) on the $5.2 million project to replace the one-lane Hunter Mill Road bridge that runs over Colvin Run near Vienna.
A new two-lane bridge where Hunter Mill crosses Colvin Run right near the border of Reston and Vienna is set to replace the nearly five-decade-old, weight-restricted one-lane bridge currently there.
The I-66 Express Lanes connecting Route 29 in Gainsville to Route 28 in Centreville are set to open this weekend, ahead of schedule.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) made the announcement Friday (Sept. 2), touting that the opening of the western part of its highway widening project will help congestion on I-66 “sooner than originally planned.”
While orange traffic cones are a familiar sight as the widening of Route 7 continues, more changes are afoot at the Baron Cameron Avenue intersection in Reston.
Night work on the project began last night, resulting in detours and changing traffic patterns on eastbound and westbound Route 7, Baron Cameron Avenue and Springvale Road. Detours are planned at night between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. through Thursday (Sept. 1).
To help ease congestion, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) said it will suspend work on many highway projects and lift lane restrictions on interstates and other major roads.
VDOT said in a release that Labor Day is one of the busiest travel days of the year. Past traffic data suggested the congestion is heaviest from noon to 7 p.m. on Friday and intermittently throughout the holiday weekend, Monday included.
