Recommendations for safety, transit, cyclist and pedestrian improvements on South Van Dorn Street in Franconia will be open for public review later this month.
After soliciting considerable public input last year, the Virginia Department of Transportation has outlined improvement alternatives for the 2.5-mile stretch of roadway in the South Van Dorn Street STARS Study (Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions).
Reston Parkway will be one lane narrower over the next couple of weeks, as repairs continue on the bridge over the Dulles Toll Road.
Starting at 9 a.m. today (Monday), the parkway’s right northbound lane will be closed along the bridge, shifting the other northbound lanes to the left, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced on Friday (Jan. 2).
Virginia’s transportation system is massive, with about 129,000 lane miles of roads and roughly 5,900 miles of rail criss-crossing the commonwealth, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation and a 2022 Virginia Statewide Rail Plan.
There’s always some kind of improvement or expansion underway, leaving drivers and commuters wondering when relief will arrive.
This winter is expected to be a little warmer than usual in Northern Virginia. But when inclement weather does hit, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will have thousands of trucks — with access to 120,000 tons of salt, 250,000 gallons of brine, and 25,000 tons of sand — ready to go.
During VDOT’s annual winter weather briefing for local government officials and the media on Nov. 17, staffers with the transportation agency and the National Weather Service (NWS) explained how they’re preparing — and what Northern Virginia residents can expect to see on the roads — over the coming months.
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.
The Virginia Department of Transportation has completed its overhaul of the Walker Road bridge over Piney Run.
The new bridge between Walker Mill Road and Park Royal Drive in Great Falls features two lanes for traffic with a sidewalk on the south side. It has no weight limit, unlike the previous one-lane bridge, which could only support vehicles up to 10 tons.
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.
Years of advocacy have paid off for residents in Lincolnia’s Bren Mar area with the recent addition of flashing pedestrian beacons at a key intersection.
An estimated 50 to 60 community members gathered last Saturday (Oct. 18) to officially celebrate the beacons’ installation at a crosswalk on Edsall Road that connects dozens of homes to the Bren Mar swimming pool and tennis courts as well as Fairfax County’s Bren Mar Park.
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).
