Alliance Position:
Construct one new lane in each direction to reduce congestion, improve regional security and protect neighborhoods from cut-through traffic.

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Public Support:
A September 2009 Alliance-commissioned survey finds 78% of area residents support adding one additional lane in each direction if it can be done within existing sound walls. Of the 22% who were opposed, 48% would support adding a new lane if it could be done within the existing right-of-way and without taking any new homes. (To see the results of the survey, click here.)

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Current Status:
In May, the Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded a $10.2 million contract to complete the first of three phases of spot improvements.

Construction is slated to begin in late summer 2010.

The other two spot improvements (Route 29 to Glebe Road and Westmoreland Street to the Dulles Toll Road Connector) are not yet funded, but are estimated to cost $49.6 million. These will be funded after the I-66 study is complete.

For more on the I-66 (Inside the Beltway) Long Term Needs Study, click here.

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Project Description: I-66 Spot Improvements (Westbound)

The project involves the improvement of three portions of I-66 westbound inside I-495:

• Spot 1 - Extension of westbound acceleration lane from Fairfax Drive to Sycamore Street, from 2 to 3 lanes. (1.5 miles)
  • Start: Late summer 2010
  • Completion: 2011
  • Cost: $19,000,000

• Spot 2 - Extension of westbound acceleration lane from Washington Blvd. to the Dulles Access Road, from 3 to 4 lanes. (1.6 miles) - put on hold by TPB action (until I-66 study is complete.)
  

• Spot 3 - Extension of westbound acceleration lane from Lee Highway/Spout Run to Glebe Rd, from 2 to 3 lanes. (1 mile) - put on hold by TPB action (until I-66 study is complete.)
  

Length: 4 miles

Complete: TBD based on TPB action

Cost: $75.6 million

Funding: Federal, State

Visit the study website: www.I-66spotimprovements.com

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Background:
I-66 inside the Beltway is quickly becoming one of the region's major transportation choke points.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Planned in the 1960s and early 1970s as an 8-lane (4 in each direction) facility with a link via the Spout Run Parkway to a new Three Sisters Potomac River Bridge to the Whitehurst freeway, this facility was politically compromised and reduced to two lanes in each direction with no new bridge.

Today, I-66 inside the Beltway is another example of the price the region is paying for parochial politics prevailing over good planning.

A recent study by Intrix, a traffic analysis firm from Washington State, finds that five of Northern Virginia’s 14 worst bottlenecks occur on I-66 inside the Beltway.

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For More Information:
Toll Free Information Line: (888) 643-3266
Email: meeting_comments@virginiadot.org
Website: http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/northernvirginia/i-66_spot_improvements.asp

For past Alliance Alerts regarding I-66 inside the Beltway, click here.

Or write to:
I-66 Spot Improvements
3900 Jermantown Road, Suite 300
Fairfax, VA 22030