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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Indra picks up €75m dynamic toll system deal in US
    October 31, 2019
    Indra has been awarded a €75 million deal for work to switch a major US roadway to dynamic pricing.
  • Econolite signals Florida priority with $7.2m contract
    June 3, 2024
    Eight-year deal will integrate LeeTran public transportation and emergency services
  • Re-timing traffic signals delivers cost benefits
    June 28, 2012
    Nashville's signal optimisation programme produced a stunning return on investment. Are those results exceptional? Could similar results be replicated in cities across the US and indeed the world? ITS International spoke to Chris Rhodes, P.E. of Kimley-Horn and Associates, project leader for the Nashville signal optimisation programme. "You have to bear in mind that with signal optimisation programmes you don't see, for instance, physical construction or new pieces of equipment on the roadside that someone
  • Dynamic Message Signs : Don’t replace, refurbish and upgrade
    August 12, 2015
    Refurbishing old dynamic message signs can save money and increase technical capabilities as David Crawford discovers. Evidence is growing on both sides of the Atlantic of the scope for retrofitting old or technically out-of-date dynamic message signs (DMS) with new electronic equipment, to save on the costs of installing full-scale replacements. In the last four months of 2014, a number of US states progressed programmes that achieved savings of more than US$1.75 million (€1.56million).