HOT project advances
Public-private partnership can move to engineering and study phase; proposal adds lanes from Arlington to Massaponax.
Date published: 10/25/2006
By KELLY HANNON
A public-private project to build High Occupancy Toll lanes on Interstate 95/395 from Arlington to Massaponax moved a step closer to construction yesterday.
The Virginia Department of Transportation signed an interim agreement with Fluor Virginia and Transurban USA, allowing the project's engineering and study phase to proceed.
"We see completion of the entire corridor by 2014, and that's an aggressive schedule," said VDOT Commissioner David Ekern.
Several years of work led to this moment. Virginia accepted proposals to build additional lanes on I-95 in 2003; VDOT selected Fluor/Transurban in December 2005.
The companies plan to add a third lane to the current two-lane High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) corridor running from Arlington to Dumfries. From Dumfries to Massaponax, Fluor/Transurban wants to build two combination HOV and HOT lanes.
Cars with three or more occupants would still ride for free, but vehicles carrying one or two people would pay a toll.
The companies also would build six park-and-ride lots in the I-95 corridor--three of them south of Dumfries, according to its original proposal--and enhance 12 bus stations.
Virginia is splitting the cost of the $53 million study phase with Fluor/Transurban.
The state is taking a risk, because there is no guarantee the project will be built. That will depend on the outcome of a plethora of studies to be completed. They include an environmental and financial review, as well as transit and traffic studies.
Another contract must be signed by all parties before design and construction can begin.
Fluor/Transurban estimated the entire project would cost $913 million in its 2003 proposal, but with escalating construction prices, could cost more today.
"We don't know until we get through the environmental process and know what can be constructed," said Barbara Reese, VDOT's chief financial officer. "We can't give you a final cost."
Fluor/Transurban will try to pin down how it will price tolls, which will be collected electronically--no human toll collectors would be used.
The average price of 27 cents a mile was quoted in its proposal. That means a 56-mile trip from Massaponax to Arlington would cost $15.12, one way for cars that did not qualify for HOV use.
Date published: 10/25/2006
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