By KELLY HANNON

Public meetings on what toll lane construction on Interstate 95 is expected to mean for local air quality, noise, water quality, wildlife and vegetation will be held in the area this week. The Virginia Department of Transportation is seeking comments on a draft environmental assessment of the I-95/395 high occupancy toll lanes project.

Technical specialists on environmental issues will be at the meetings to answer questions.

Comments will also be accepted by mail and e-mail through Nov. 15.

The first meeting is from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Anne E. Moncure Elementary School in Stafford.

A second meeting will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Spotsylvania County Schools Administration Building, which is across from Massaponax High School on U.S. 1.

Mark Dudenhefer, Stafford Board of Supervisors chairman, said he'll attend the Stafford meeting.

"HOT lanes are a major part of the network of transportation improvements that are needed to help eliminate the gridlock," Dudenhefer said. Taking steps to move the project forward is good, Dudenhefer said.

Virginia has an interim agreement with two private companies, Fluor Virginia Inc. and Transurban USA, to build reversible toll lanes over 56 miles of I-95/ 395 from the Pentagon in Arlington to Spotsylvania.

Construction has already started on 14 miles of HOT lanes on Interstate 495, also built by Fluor-Transurban.

This week's meetings and the environmental assessment cover only the southern section of the HOT lanes project, two new lanes that would be built in the median of I-95 from Dumfries to the Massaponax area of Spotsylvania.

The project's northern half, from the Pentagon to Dumfries, would expand the two-lane high occupancy vehicle corridor to three lanes. That half of the project has a separate environmental review process.

In August, VDOT posted the southern section's environmental assessment online at vamegaprojects.com.

A few findings in the environmental assessment:

Building two HOT lanes on I-95 would add a theoretical capacity for 3,900 vehicles an hour, a capacity increase of 54 percent.

No homes, businesses, farms or nonprofit organizations would be displaced by the project, and no community facilities or services would be displaced.