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HOT lane widths are causing concerns toll-lane parking

HOT Lanes width, tolls bring questions at public hearing in Dumfries

Date published: 2/10/2009

By KELLY HANNON

The newest Honda Civic is 5 feet 9 inches wide. A 2009 Toyota Sienna minivan is 6 feet 4 inches wide. A new Ford F-150 pickup is 6 feet 5 inches wide.

All would fit neatly inside an 11-foot-wide travel lane on Interstate 95.

But is that lane wide enough to carry buses?

Several people asked that question last night at a public hearing for a proposed toll lane project on I-95/395 from the Pentagon to Garrisonville Road.

Squeezing three lanes into the existing median space will require shrinking some lanes to a width of 11 feet for a three-mile stretch.

The Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission runs commuter buses in the current HOV lanes. PRTC's OmniRide and Metro Direct buses are all 8 feet 5 inches wide.

From Eads Street at the Pentagon to Shirlington, a distance of three miles, each toll lane would be 11 feet wide, with a variable shoulder on one side of 2 feet to 9 feet and another shoulder ranging from 8 feet to 9 feet.

Sen. George Barker, D-Prince William, told the audience at Potomac High School in Dumfries that transportation commissions in Northern Virginia have told him they are concerned about safety.

Barker said the narrower lanes are "a disaster waiting to happen."

Most toll lanes would be wider than 11 feet. From Shirlington to the Prince William Parkway, a distance of 17 miles, a 12-foot center lane will be flanked by two 11-foot lanes. A 10-foot shoulder would be on the right, and a 12.5-foot shoulder on the left.

All toll lanes from the Prince William Parkway to Garrisonville Road would be 12 feet wide, with 12-foot shoulders on both sides.

Two companies are working with the Virginia Department of Transportation to determine if they can convert the two High Occupancy Vehicle lanes running along the center of I-95 into three toll lanes over a distance of 28 miles.

A later phase of the project would build two new toll lanes another 28 miles south to Spotsylvania.

To help ease afternoon traffic at the Garrisonville Road exit, one toll lane will be built early in the Fredericksburg area. A 9-mile, single-lane extension will be built from Dumfries to Exit 143 as part of the project's northern section.

Toll lanes on I-95 will come with money for public transit along the interstate-- $195 million, according to project officials. Part of that money will pay to build 3,000 commuter parking spaces along I-95, including lots in the Fredericksburg area. A study has shown 1,050 spaces would be built in the Garrisonville Road area, and another 300 spaces in the Massaponax area. That study showed another 3,750 spaces are needed in the I-95 corridor, beyond what Fluor-Transurban would build initially with the $195 million. --Kelly Hannon

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Date published: 2/10/2009

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