Skip to main content

Work to begin on North Virginia highway improvements to ease congestion

Work will begin this summer on the first major improvements to US Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway, Virginia, in 15 years. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) project is part of a comprehensive initiative to transform the I-66 corridor, giving commuters and other travellers a variety of fast and reliable choices for getting to and from work. Toll revenues will fund multimodal improvements, giving commuters expanded options for travel. To jumpstart the process, the Commonwealth Transp
August 2, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
RSSWork will begin this summer on the first major improvements to US Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway, Virginia, in 15 years. The 1747 Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) project is part of a comprehensive initiative to transform the I-66 corridor, giving commuters and other travellers a variety of fast and reliable choices for getting to and from work.

Toll revenues will fund multimodal improvements, giving commuters expanded options for travel. To jumpstart the process, the Commonwealth Transportation Board recently approved a nearly US$10 million program to fund a series of multimodal projects identified by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.

Contracts totalling US$60 million were awarded to Fort Myer Construction for tolling infrastructure construction and to 139 TransCore for tolling equipment installation. The project includes eight overhead electronic toll collection gantries on I-66 and approximately 125 signs along I-66 and local roads approaching the highway. The work will require periodic lane closures on local roads approaching I-66 interchanges, ramp closures and night-time lane closures along I-66 itself. Brief, occasional total closures of I-66 will occur during overnight construction to install the overhead gantries. Construction will conclude next year.

In addition to these improvements, a four-mile segment of eastbound I-66 from the Dulles Connector Road to Fairfax Drive will be widened to provide further congestion relief.

The initial project includes the installation of tolling equipment along the Capital Beltway to the Lee Highway exit and signage on local streets approaching the highway. The new I-66 inside the Beltway will be the country’s first roadway with dynamic tolling on all lanes during peak period traffic, keeping traffic moving at highway speeds by adjusting toll prices based on traffic volume.

Related Content

  • September 16, 2014
    Dubai’s Salik toll system wins International Toll Excellence Award
    The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has awarded the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai the prestigious 2014 Toll Excellence Award in Technology for its expansion of the Salik toll system, implemented by TransCore. The award was presented at IBTTA’s 82nd annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Already home to the world’s widest open-road tolling zone spanning seven lanes in a single direction, RTA’s objectives were to reduce growing traffic congestion, encourage use of alte
  • April 25, 2012
    TransCore wins three ITS contracts from Nevada DOT
    TransCore has won three separate contracts to provide ITS design, construction and integration services for the Nevada Department of Transportation. The projects include a 30-mile extension of the FAST traffic management system along I-15 from outside Las Vegas to the California border; a 15-mile expansion of the FAST traffic management system along I-515 on the eastern side of the Las Vegas metropolitan area; and a 10-mile segment of I-80 in Reno, Nevada, as part of a roadway reconstruction project.
  • April 19, 2017
    TEXpress adds reversible managed lanes
    Land availability restrictions and tidal traffic flows have led to the implementation of a novel managed lane configuration in Texas, as Colin Sowman finds out. Dealing with traffic congestion related to the ‘tidal flows’ caused by large numbers of commuters making their way into major business hubs in the morning and returning to the suburbs in the evening, has seen the widespread use of adaptive signal timing and even reversible lanes.
  • April 17, 2012
    Toll plaza conversion will reduce congestion on I-95
    In an effort to reduce congestion in a busy corridor for motorists and commercial freight carriers, Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) appointed TransCore as the lead integrator on a project to convert the Newark Toll Plaza on I-95, adding two new electronic highway speed lanes on both the north and south bound plazas. Plaza throughput is now about to jump from 250-300 transactions per lane per hour to an estimated 2,000. The US$32 million “shovel ready” project was fully funded through the Amer