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

  • Hertfordshire’s traffic control centre ‘improves congestion’
    March 13, 2013
    As part of a wider Hertfordshire County Council strategy to ease congestion across the county, the council is installing variable message signs to provide live incident information, managed by a centralised control centre at County Hall. The centre opened in October last year at a cost of around US$600,000 and is operated by eighteen staff, who monitor the county’s road network. If an accident occurs, traffic signals can be adjusted and messages displayed in a bid to redirect traffic ease congestion. Mainte
  • TomTom provides flexibility for Riyadh
    June 1, 2016
    With five years of traffic disruption ahead and an inadequate traffic monitoring system, the authorities in Riyadh needed a solution – and quickly. In preparation for embarking on what is currently the world’s largest metro construction project, the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) in Riyadh needed to put in place measures to minimise the additional congestion and travel delays the five-year project would inevitably cause.
  • Iteris on team to operate VDOT’s traffic operations centres
    July 24, 2013
    American ITS solutions provider Iteris has been selected as part of a team to operate, integrate, and provide innovative solutions for Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) five traffic operations centres. Iteris was chosen as a sub-contractor by Serco to provide traffic operators at two of VDOT’s five traffic centres and general engineering services as requested by Serco. The centres monitor traffic conditions via cameras and other technology, allowing them to provide traveller information on road
  • Applied Information’s app gets Marietta connected
    October 26, 2017
    Must the benefits of connected vehicle technology wait for a generation of new or retrofitted vehicles? The US city of Marietta is about to find out. Can connected vehicle functionality be delivered via a smartphone? Well, in Marietta, Georgia, they are about to answer that question. The city is testing a smartphone app which warns motorists of nearby cyclists and pedestrians, approaching first responders, wrong-way driving, entering active school zones and much more.