The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is exploring the idea of extending the Interstate 495 express lanes from the I-95/I-395 interchange in Springfield to across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Maryland.

If the 11-mi. project is approved and built, it would complete the highway's express lanes, or High Occupancy Toll lanes, around the entire 25-mi. Virginia side of the Capital Beltway. The express lanes can already be found on nearly 12 mi. of the Beltway, and VDOT will soon begin construction on a 3-mi. extension from Tysons Corner to the Maryland line, with construction set to be done in 2025.

To start, VDOT announced Dec. 2 that it would conduct an environmental study that would evaluate a one-lane express lanes alternative, the more common two-lane configuration and a no-build option.

Each alternative in the study will reserve a lane for transit in each direction on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River. When the revamped bridge was opened to traffic in 2008, its design included additional space for future transportation needs, including an accommodation for a transit rail line.

The report would be part of VDOT's current Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP).

American University's WAMU 88.5 reported that the added express lanes aim to give drivers options: wait out congested traffic, ride free in the express lanes with three or more people in the vehicle, or pay a variable toll to use the express lanes with one or two people in the car. Variable tolls are priced to keep traffic flowing at least at 60 mph.

"The express lanes are expected to provide additional travel choices, and to provide a key component of the overall transportation network in the region," Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine said in a statement. "This segment of the Capital Beltway will provide an opportunity to expand a regional system that already provides key components of the transit system, connecting activity centers with dedicated access points to transit hubs."

The $6.8 million study for the last portion of the Beltway will be done over two years with the help of the Federal Highway Administration and other federal, state and local agencies in Virginia and Maryland.

Virginia has invested heavily in the Beltway's express lanes with nearly 90 mi. to be completed in the state by the end of 2022, according to WAMU 88.5, in Washington, D.C.

Just to the south of the Beltway, VDOT is constructing the 10-mi.-long Fredericksburg extension on I-95 from the current end of the lanes near Aquia Harbour to just north of Fredericksburg, an effort set to be completed by the end of next year.

The transportation department also will soon kick off construction on a 3-mi. express lane extension from Tysons Corner to a point across the American Legion Bridge.

Maryland, too, had been studying the idea of High Occupancy Tolls lanes on its portion of the Beltway and most of I-270, the radio station reported. Those plans have since been scaled back to only include the Beltway from the American Legion Bridge to just past the I-270 interchange, and up the I-270 interchange to Gaithersburg.

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