Earlier this morning VDOT officials sent out a news release requesting private proposals for how to mitigate traffic on I-66. Technically speaking, it was a request for information from private companies to determine what the best concept in order to attain a proposal would be.
The plan would be similar to the 495 Express lanes in that the public capital costs for the project would be reduced by instead shifting that cost to the private management firm in return for a 50 to 100 year toll road lease. The plan is very loose at this time in terms of scope, and VDOT will likely hear a range of ideas from decking concepts to road widenings. It does have some limitations.
- Any concept must provide for more non-toll capacity than currently exists. In other words the expansion will not just be for a toll road; there will be requirements to provide additional lane capacity (or equivalent in the case of spot improvements at bad ramps like Nutley and Route 123) as well.
- Conversion of the current HOV lanes into a HOT system that would be free for car poolers, transit, and emergency vehicles and would be tolled for all others similarly to the 495 HOT lanes on a per mile basis.
- Allow Bus Rapid Transit to transverse unimpeded within the new separated HOT lanes from Haymarket to I-495 HOT Lanes.
The idea has a lot of merit, but also possible pitfalls. The additional widening may be a non-starter in some more established neighborhoods around Vienna and Fairfax. These regions could likely see the same capacity benefit by simply providing improved flyover ramps, as most of the traffic occurs currently at the interchanges themselves between Nutley and Route 50.
Additional Right of Way should also not impede the ability for Metro to expand further to Centreville in the future. This was one of the major flaws of the 495 HOT lanes, which removed the ability to have an at surface (cheaper) heavy rail system that could have been used in the future to connect the blue, yellow, orange and silver lines more efficiently.
Another problem could be that like the 495 Express lanes, the usership will ultimately not support the project, especially if the project also entails adding more non-toll capacity. Non-toll capacity means that people will be far less likely, atleast early on, to pay to use the same road. Even without the additional non-toll lane capacity on 495 Express, when construction ended and the beltway returned to original condition, the capacity was improved. That improvement on capacity hampered the need, and therefore the revenue taken in by the Express lanes, which then caused the toll rates to skyrocket in order to accommodate the loss in revenue. This created another Greenway-esc situation, where the very few were charged exorbitant rates and traffic mitigation was minimal.
The major benefit could be the integration of a rapid bus system already in use on 495, and actually fairly popular from the anecdotal evidence I have seen, into one that would serve the perilously transit isolated regions of Centreville and Fairfax, some of the worst traffic hubs in Northern Virginia. Providing the ability for a Centreville resident to get from park and ride (similar to Herndon Monroe) to Tysons within 20 minutes will be very popular considering this averages approximately 70 minutes currently in rush hour, and 45 minutes in off-peak rush.
As with all things, the devil will be in the detail. The specific contract language, phasing, and concept on how to “improve capacity” will ultimately dictate whether this will be a good or a bad infrastructure plan for our region.