Four new high-occupancy toll lanes — once derisively called “Lexus lanes” — will open Saturday on the Capital Beltway between the Springfield Interchange and the Dulles Toll Road. This is good news for every driver in Northern Virginia, including those who can’t afford a Lexus and don’t want to pay any tolls, because the increased capacity will speed up traffic for everybody.
Thanks to a public-private partnership between the Virginia Department of Transportation, Fluor Enterprises and Australian toll road developer Transurban, the 495 Express Lanes were completed on-budget and six weeks ahead of schedule. The private joint venture kicked in 80 percent of the $2 billion cost, leveraging public funds to replace 50 aging bridges and upgrade 12 key interchanges that would not have been financially possible otherwise. In exchange, Fluor-Transurban will pocket tolls for the next 75 years while VDOT retains ownership of the “highway within a highway.”
