A proposal for high-occupancy toll lanes that would run from the Pentagon down Interstate 95 into Stafford County is facing opposition from local leaders who say they need more answers before they can support the proposed toll project.
It also is facing questions from property owners who line the route and the “slugs” who carpool on it.
Officials from Arlington County and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, as well as residents and commuters, sounded off last week in three public hearings on the first 36-mile leg of the proposed project that would expand existing high-occupancy vehicle lanes, plus charge tolls to solo drivers who want to use the less-congested lanes. They voiced various concerns ranging from the project’s environmental and traffic effect to its lane widths and noise wall styles, but they share a unifying request for more information.
The Arlington County Board and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, which covers Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties, have formally said they can’t support the project until more questions are answered.
“We move more people through bus service and van pools than we’ll ever move people with single-occupancy vehicles,” Christopher Zimmerman, an Arlington County Board member who is also chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, told The Examiner.
Project manager Young Ho Chang cautioned that “there are a number of things that need to be worked out on the project.” Although some may say the HOT lanes are a done deal, he said, an agreement still must be signed with private companies that would build, operate and maintain the lanes. And the plan still must win approval from a state transportation board.
The Virginia Department of Transportation is working on the project as part of a public-private partnership with Fluor-Transurban to create reversible high-occupancy toll lanes that eventually lead from Arlington to Spotsylvania County. Fluor-Transurban would build, maintain and operate the lanes in exchange for a share of the tolls.
The first phase calls for extending the existing HOV lanes, which let vehicles with three or more passengers travel for free, for an additional 28 miles. Solo drivers could travel on the less-congested lanes by paying tolls that vary depending on the traffic flow.
The project would help connect a network of high-occupancy lanes around the D.C. region, including those under construction on the Beltway, as a way to try to relieve congestion on traffic-clogged commutes. It also would include more access points along the heavily traveled Interstate 95/395 corridor, a key feature as an expected 84,000 workers will need to access five local military sites because of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission changes.
Early projections from 2008 tagged the project with a $902 million price, but Chang said the cost would depend on the final scope of the project.
The public can continue to offer comments until Saturday.
