Thursday, April 4, 2013
A special promotion is in effect Saturday and Sunday to encourage travelers to try out the new express lanes.
Sick of the gridlock around the Beltway? Drivers this weekend can use the Interstate 495 Beltway Express Lanes for free — no E-ZPass required. The free weekend, April 6 and 7, is part of an educational campaign to encourage Beltway drivers to try the new travel option on the Virginia side of the Capital Beltway and see how the Express Lanes can work for them, according to the 495 Express Lanes project. In addition to two days of free travel, the Express Lanes will also lift the E-ZPass requirement. Drivers can travel on the Express Lanes with or without an E-ZPass and will not be charged a toll. At all other times, drivers are required to travel with an E-ZPass; carpoolers must have an E-ZPass Flex. Free Express Lanes travel is only …
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Seven new locations will show miles and minutes to destinations beginning in April with additional signs expected by summer.
How slow can you go? That and other questions will be answered beginning Tuesday on Interstate 66, when motorists will begin to see travel times displayed on additional overhead message boards spanning the 35 miles from Washington to Haymarket. The Virginia Department of Transportation has posted the number of miles and minutes since August 2011 to key destinations at three locations between the Beltway and Gainsville. Several more locations will be added by summer — two on I-66 and four locations on major roads approaching I-66. Congestion Conundrum: Rail or Roads? We already know traffic in the Washington metro area is the worst in the country, according to the Texas Transportation Institute. How to alleviate congestion in Northern …
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Department says new technology will allow officials to track plows, redirect them to emergencies this winter.
When Northern Virginia gets snow this winter, the Virginia Department of Transportation says it's ready to meet it head-on, with a $55 million budget and new resources, including technology that allows for more efficient plowing and an increased road-salt supply. At a briefing about the department's winter preparedness plans Wednesday in Fairfax, Branco Vlacich, VDOT’s Northern Virginia maintenance engineer, said 4,000 trucks would be available to plow snow and keep roads clear this winter — 1,000 more trucks than VDOT had during the harsh winter of 2010. About 2,200 of the 4,000 trucks will be equipped with Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) technology, enabling officials to locate plow trucks are and deploy them to the nearest emergency …
Thursday, June 14, 2012
You can find comprehensive travel information via VDOT's 511 service on your phone, the web and now as an app for iOS and Android devices.
Last month, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) announced that their 511 service is now available for Android phones and tablets and Apple's iPhones and iPads as a free app. The service was previously available via phone calls to the 511 number and on the web at www.511virginia.org. As we all too well know, summertime travel on Virginia roads can be unpredictable. There are of course some known knowns, to paraphrase a former Secretary of Defense, such as I-95 South will be a parking lot every Friday from 2 p.m. onward. But when you encounter stalled traffic on a late evening mid-week as you try to run errands or when you find out too late that there are going to be periodic lane closures on the beltway to accommodate …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Construction will be complete Saturday morning.
Transportation officials hope to get rid of some delays along I-66 west at I-495 by adding an additional lane. Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) plans to have crews work overnight to open a third lane on I-66 west over I-495 to provide more room for vehicles. This lane will be possible by cutting a lane from the Exit 49 (I-495 south, Outer Loop to I-66 west). By making that ramp a single lane, crew will have room to add a third lane to I-66 in that area. The road work starts Friday night. One lane on I-66 west and a ramp lane on I-495 north to I-66 west will close from 9:30 p.m. to 7 Saturday morning to allow crews to make new lane markings, alter the ramp, install new concrete barriers and add appropriate signs. Everything …
Monday, December 12, 2011
Motorists on I-95 will be able to get travel times on the fly from electronic highway signs.
Starting today, electronic signs along I-95 between Fredericksburg and Washington, D.C., will display travel times for the heavily trafficked highway. The Virginia Department of Transportation has been running a similar program since August on I-66 between the beltway and Gainesville. "Using travel data to display accurate travel times allows motorists to consider taking an alternate route before getting mired in traffic or, at the very least, know what to expect,” said Governor McDonnell in a press release. “Whether you are a daily commuter, long distance traveler or trucker, this information is helpful.” Travel information will be displayed on electronic billboards at seven locations, three for northbound motorists, four for southbound …
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Year-long study will examine navigating the highway by public transportation, bike and roadways.
A Virginia Department of Transportation study now in the public comment phase could offer ways to make commuting along Interstate-66 more efficient. The I-66 Multimodal Study is looking at 11 mobility options — HOV lanes, bicycle and pedestrian corridor access and highway improvements among them — to move commuters along the busy stretch of road between I-495 and the Roosevelt Bridge more quickly. Kanti Srikanth, transportation planning director for VDOT, said the study is also looking at a variety of supportive multimodal improvement options like moving commuters by bicycle or mass transit, implementing transportation demand management and utilizing other roadways to alleviate congestion on the road, especially during peak hours. “The …
Vincent Careatti
1:21 pm on Thursday, November 22, 2012
Question is have they been trained where to pile snow. It's really great when the snow is plowed on the limited sidewalks more ›