Skip to main content

Virginia installs ATM to ease congestion on I-66

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has begun work on installing an active traffic management |(ATM) system on interstate 66 through Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties from the Washington, DC line to Route 29 in Gainesville. Designed and built by TransCore, the system is intended to improve safety and incident management and will include new sign gantries, shoulder and lane control signs, speed displays, incident and queue detection, and increased traffic camera coverage.
November 17, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The 1747 Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has begun work on installing an active traffic management |(ATM) system on interstate 66 through Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties from the Washington, DC line to Route 29 in Gainesville.  

Designed and built by 139 TransCore, the system is intended to improve safety and incident management and will include new sign gantries, shoulder and lane control signs, speed displays, incident and queue detection, and increased traffic camera coverage.

Sensors, traffic cameras and overhead signs will enable VDOT to change the signs to give drivers real time advance information on upcoming traffic, crashes, congestion or closed lanes. VDOT hopes that getting people out of closed lanes before they reach incidents will make the slowdowns less abrupt and less severe. If there is standard traffic, the signs could be changed to give drivers a warning about exactly how far away the congestion begins.

Although ATM is a relatively new concept in managing traffic in the United States, it is popular in Europe, such as the Highways Agency’s smart motorways project in the UK.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Putting a stop to intersection indecision
    March 9, 2015
    David Crawford takes a look at innovations to reduce crashes at rural intersections. Intersection crashes continue to represent a worryingly large share of deaths and serious injuries across US highway networks. Statistics from the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration show that an average of 21% of road traffic accident deaths occur at crossings. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) calculates that intersection crashes account for 48% of all injury-related i
  • Washington’s new traffic cameras go online
    December 7, 2012
    Drivers in Washington State can now get real time travel information on Interstate 5 between Rochester and Tumwater. Six new traffic cameras have been installed as part of the I-5 Grand Mound to Maytown Stage 2 project, one of four projects funded by US$390 million from the 2003 and 2005 fuel tax packages to improve traffic flow and safety along an eighteen-mile stretch of I-5 in Lewis and Thurston counties. The new cameras not only give the 56,000 drivers who use this section of I-5 daily a real-time look
  • Q-Free ATMS deployed on West Virginia country roads
    April 25, 2025
    Mix-and- match modules make Kinetic Mobility platform scalable, says Q-Free
  • Singapore plans changes to transit system
    June 13, 2018
    Singapore has the third-highest population density in the world and the numbers are continuing to grow. The government knows that transit is vital: David Crawford investigates the city state’s Smart Nation strategy. Transport is the most important of the five domains identified as the pillars of Singapore's far-reaching Smart Nation strategy, launched in November 2014 by prime minister Lee Hsien Loong with the aim of reaching fulfilment by 2024. Roads account for 12% of the island republic's 719km2 land ar