AASHTO Journal, 30 October 2015
Virginia is moving rapidly toward a plan to build high-occupancy toll lanes on part of heavily congested Interstate 66 – outside the beltway surrounding the nation’s capital – which now has untolled high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
The state’s Commonwealth Transportation Board on Oct. 27 approved the recommended design concept from the Virginia Department of Transportation, as well as a phased implementation approach.
That preferred alternative for the “I-66 Outside the Beltway Project” incorporates several multimodal design features to improve traffic flow on 25 miles of the route reaching from I-495 in Fairfax County to Route 15 in Haymarket.
The plan is to develop the corridor with two HOT express lanes, alongside three regular lanes in each direction, with space in the median for possible future rail transit.
VDOT and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation would build dedicated express lane access points, incorporate safety and operational improvements at key interchanges, and include road transit services such as park-and-ride lots and bus service plus corridor-wide bicycle route, hiking trail and sidewalk improvements.
VDOT said a final environmental document and a financing plan should be ready by year end.
That plan for traffic improvements outside the Capital Beltway is only one part of VDOT’s vision.
For the part of I-66 running inside the beltway toward downtown Washington, D.C., the agency wants to curb congestion by tolling existing lanes during peak periods without building new ones. However, some local officials want VDOT to widen the often clogged segments of I-66 inside the beltway.
Here is a website where the agency details its plans both inside and outside the I-495 boundary.
“Due to the cost and complexity of the proposed improvements, the CTB has approved a phased implementation approach,” VDOT said. Phase 1 will extend express lanes for 22 of the total 25 miles from 495 to Gainesville. The agency expects to start construction in 2017, and open the new segments to traffic in 2021.
Opponents reportedly tried to get the oversight board to delay action, over concerns that include imposing tolls on an existing highway where none are in place.
But VDOT said it developed its plans along with “extensive public input received at nearly 200 public meetings held since January 2014.” It said the planned improvements “are expected to move more people throughout the I-66 corridor, reduce hours of congestion per day and reduce cut-through traffic on local roads.”