An influx of private investment in Northern Virginia highway projects has prompted transportation officials to kick-start a study on upgrading Interstate 66, according to Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer.
Virginia officials plan to examine a broad array of solutions for the portion of the highway outside the Beltway, including transit and toll lanes. The long-term study will culminate with an environmental impact statement to be completed in 2011.
The study has been funded for years but was shelved in 2002 after the failure of a sales tax referendum that would have paid for the region’s transportation projects, including those along I-66, Homer said. Since then, Virginia — suffering from ever-dwindling revenues for road and rail improvements — has turned to the private sector to help expand its transportation network. New high-occupancy toll lanes, now under construction in the Capital Beltway, are being built and operated by a consortium of Fluor-Transurban. A similar construction venture is on hold for Interstate 395/95. Some elected leaders are tentatively floating the toll lanes concept for I-66. If Fairfax County received its fair share of transportation dollars from Richmond, HOT lanes wouldn’t be necessary, said Supervisor Pat Herrity, who has pushed for the I-66 study. “Unfortunately, right now, in terms of financing, the private sector and HOT lanes are really one of the only places you can turn,” he said. The environmental impact statement will be preceded by a series of smaller reviews of issues like right of way and HOV operations to help officials reach a “general direction” for what is possible on I-66, Homer said. Backups on I-66 are only expected to get worse. The highway now sees from seven to eight hours of congestion each day from about 200,000 vehicles. The I-66 corridor outside the Beltway is projected to experience a 50 percent increase in households, jobs and people over the next two decades, Homer said in a recent seminar. The problem of traffic on I-66 can’t be fixed without building additional lanes, said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
