Open Roads collaborates with Virginia DOT on the 495 Express Lanes project

Opened on 17 November, the fourteen-mile corridor of new high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in Northern Virginia from the Springfield Interchange to just north of the Dulles Toll Road on the Virginia side of the Capital Beltway provides drivers with a faster, more predictable trip on the Capital Beltway. The 495 Express Lanes project supported more than 16,000 jobs and generated nearly US$3.5 billion of economic impact state-wide. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provider Open Roads Consulting (Open R
December 11, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Opened on 17 November, the fourteen-mile corridor of new high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes  in Northern Virginia from the Springfield Interchange to just north of the Dulles Toll Road on the Virginia side of the Capital Beltway provides drivers with a faster, more predictable trip on the Capital Beltway. The 495 Express Lanes project supported more than 16,000 jobs and generated nearly US$3.5 billion of economic impact state-wide.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provider 5660 Open Roads Consulting (Open Roads) collaborated with the 1747 Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and roads operator 600 Transurban to develop an interface that integrates the 495 Express Lanes Transportation Management System (TMS) and the Northern Virginia Public Safety and Transportation Operations Center (PSTOC) Advanced Transportation Management System.

The system, OpenTMS Enterprise System, was developed and deployed by Open Roads. The interface is designed to share different types of data between the two systems: incidents, work zones, DMS (dynamic message sign), traffic sensor, travel time, and weather station data.  Open Roads worked closely with VDOT and Transurban to define the system interface requirements, software functional requirements, current user interface to incorporate the HOT lanes information for use by the PSTOC management and staff. VDOT and Open Roads have made tremendous efforts to create situational awareness to deliver improved safety and travel times to the motoring public in the region.

Governor Bob McDonnell participated in an opening event celebration in Tysons Corner with elected officials, media and key project personnel to commemorate the opening of the new traffic solution. He commented that the opening of the 495 Express Lanes means opportunity for Virginia as the project not only helped create jobs during construction, but will continue to make Northern Virginia a more attractive place to work and live. He also stated that the Express Lanes will open the region for business by providing better access to key employer centers and delivering the infrastructure needed to grow businesses and create additional jobs.
Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Hurdles to MaaS adoption highlighted
    January 25, 2018
    Jack Opiola talks to some MaaS advocates in the US. Cities will accommodate almost 60% of the world’s population by 2025 and technology is outpacing transportation plans and planners - putting extreme pressures upon planners and transportation systems alike. Big data, digital payments, ubiquitous communications, smartphone applications, on-demand travel and autonomous vehicles are all shredding existing transport plans. Never before has the pace of population growth and the tools to address this problem
    Read More
  • US state of the art workzone safety
    January 25, 2012
    The Texas Transportation Institute's Jerry Ullman talks about the state of the art in work zone safety in the US. Work zones are places where, perhaps more than anywhere else on the road network, mobility and safety are strongly linked. Historically, field crews and contractors wanted vehicles in work zones to be moving as slowly as possible, assuming that made conditions the safest for work crews. We are though starting to see a shift in such thinking with the realisation that excessive delays or slow-down
    Read More
  • New Mersey crossing ends Halton’s congestion misery
    December 5, 2017
    Plagued by intolerable congestion but denied government funding for its solution, tiny Halton Borough Council relentlessly pursued its vision and achieved what many believed impossible. Halton may be a small local authority in north west England, but it had a big traffic problem. However, as the road, or more particularly the bridge, involved was not deemed a strategic route, central government would not commission or even fund a solution - a problem that many other local authorities will recognise.
    Read More
  • Asking drivers what information they need: radical but effective
    March 19, 2014
    When Texas A&M Transportation Institute was asked to devise a temporary traveller information system for work zones, it started by asking drivers what they need. Robert Brydia explains the thinking, implementation and results. US Interstate 35 (I-35) runs roughly north–south originating in Laredo, Texas and ends 1,500 miles away in Duluth, Minnesota having passed through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Within Texas the I-35 splits into I-35E and I-35W passing through Dallas and Fort Worth respectiv
    Read More

Highlighted Content