Motorists on Interstate 66 will have to contend with multilane closures this weekend as transportation officials work to ease the gridlock on one of the most congested highways in the Washington region.
Virginia transportation officials plan to shut down two lanes of eastbound I-66 between Nutley Street and Interstate 495 as road crews prepare to shift traffic onto new I-66 bridges over the Capital Beltway.
The closures are scheduled to stretch from Friday at 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. Monday, and are expected to inconvenience tens of thousands of area drivers.
Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Titunik said roughly 3,500 drivers pass through the affected area each hour during peak weekend times, which he defined as any time before 11 p.m. Friday, and between 10 a.m. and roughly 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
“At times we could have backups approaching an hour during the weekend,” he said.
Titunik said the weekend’s closures are just one in a series of minor shutdowns planned through the end of 2011 as road crews improve interchanges linking I-66 and the Beltway.
The interchange improvements are the newest headache in a seemingly yearlong season of roadwork on I-66. The crammed interstate is continually riddled with road crews as transportation agencies work on construction of the Dulles Metrorail extension, among other projects.
But relief is on the way.
State and federal highway officials, at the urging of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, recently agreed to open two restricted traffic ramps to all drivers.
The I-66 ramps at Monument Drive and Stringfellow Road are currently used only by high-occupancy vehicles. But soon they will be open to all drivers during non-HOV hours.
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, R-Springfield, had been pushing the Federal Highway Administration and Virginia Department of Transportation to open the ramps for the past two years.
“It’s a common-sense solution to solving I-66 congestion,” Herrity said. “It’s these little, incremental things that we can do that won’t cost a lot of money.”
Herrity said he also is pushing transportation officials to open up the I-66 shoulder lanes to drivers during the busiest traffic periods.
