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I-95 flyover planned for North Stafford in first phase of HOT lanes project

By KELLY HANNON

Date published: 3/14/2008

The evening commute to Stafford County on Interstate 95 could speed up under a plan to build a flyover to funnel carpool traffic onto Garrisonville Road.

Starting in late 2010 or 2011, carpool lanes in what is now the I-95 median could extend beyond Dumfries, where existing High Occupancy Vehicle lanes end.

Drivers could use those lanes years before the entire High Occupancy Toll lane project is finished, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation. That nine-mile extension will carry HOV traffic and toll-paying vehicles.

Vehicles with one or two occupants will pay a toll to use the lanes, while vehicles with three or more occupants can use the lanes for free. A new right lane will be built on I-95 south so traffic can exit at Garrisonville Road, Exit 143, by flyover.

"In my mind, that's a major accomplishment," said Stafford Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer, one of several Stafford officials who pushed for an early extension of the carpool lanes. Dudenhefer and others do not want HOV traffic to merge into the left lane of I-95.

The current HOV lane merges into the left lane of I-95 south at Dumfries creating a bottleneck.

Virginia has an interim agreement to build toll lanes on I-95 with two private companies, Fluor Virginia Inc. and Transurban (USA) Development Inc.

the toll project

Fluor-Transurban will add a third lane to the current 28-mile HOV corridor running from the Pentagon to Dumfries, and build two new lanes in the center of the interstate another 28 miles from Dumfries to the Massaponax area in Spotsylvania County.

The Federal Highway Administration decided the dividing point between the project's two halves was Dumfries. This distinction was needed for the federally required environmental reviews.

The northern half will be built first. The southern end will not be finished until 2014.

That concerned Stafford supervisors, who did not want to wait for the more complicated environmental review of the southern half to be finished before Stafford had HOV access.

So Fluor-Transurban agreed to extend two toll lanes from Dumfries to just north of Exit 150/Joplin Road as part of the northern project.

Date published: 3/14/2008

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