McLEAN, Va. — Stymied by a federal lawsuit filed by Arlington County, Virginia officials on Thursday abandoned plans to build high-occupancy toll lanes on a six-mile, traffic-choked stretch of highway inside the Capital Beltway on Interstate 395.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said Thursday the state will now build the so-called HOT lanes only on a 29-mile stretch of the I-95 corridor, from Garrisonville Road in Stafford County to Edsall Road in Fairfax County about two miles north of the Springfield Mixing Bowl. It will abandon plans for a six-mile stretch on I-395 that would have carried motorists through Arlington and the city of Alexandria into the nation's capital.
Arlington County officials had sued to stop the project, which would allow solo drivers to pay to use lanes currently reserved for carpoolers. The county worried that incentives to use car pools would drop if people could pay their way onto congestion-free lanes.
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Connaughton said the delays associated with Arlington's lawsuit were crippling the project and that the state needed to move forward.
"We can no longer wait to deliver congestion relief and new travel choices," Connaughton said in a statement. "The Capital Beltway, I-95 and I-395 corridors are home to some of Virginia's most important employment centers and military sites. We are doing what we need to do to get businesses and people across these critical routes moving again."
Arlington County Board Chairman Christopher Zimmerman welcomed Connaughton's announcement.
"The County's goals have always been to protect transit and High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) travel in the corridor and to preserve Arlington neighborhoods," Zimmerman said.
The I-95 corridor currently has two lanes that stretch roughly 25 miles from the Potomac River to southern Prince William County that are dedicated to vehicles with three or more passengers during rush hour. Under the HOT lanes concept, solo drivers would pay a variable toll that would allow them to use the lanes. The tolls would be adjusted to ensure free flow of traffic, with rates rising during peak use.
As part of the HOT lanes project, those lanes will be extended nine miles into Stafford County, and additional lanes will be added to stretches in Prince William and Fairfax counties, paid for by a public-private partnership that will depend on the toll revenue to recoup its investment. A similar project is already under way on the Capital Beltway in Fairfax County.
Connaughton said the I-95 HOT lanes project will be adjusted so that special ramps will be built from the lanes to the Mark Center in Alexandria, which expects an influx of thousands of workers every day as part of a military base realignment. Political leaders in northern Virginia have warned that the base realignments — officially expected to take effect later this year — could significantly exacerbate the region's traffic woes.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.
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