The region was promised future Metrorail across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to connect Virginia and Maryland when the bridge was reconstructed 15 years ago. And WMATA is currently studying a Blue Line loop across the bridge.
But, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is racing ahead with a biased study designed solely to extend High Occupancy Toll Lanes (aka “Express Lanes”) from Springfield across the bridge to MD210. The comment period ends this Monday, October 2nd!
Email VDOT & your elected officials!
Further expansion of the Beltway and connecting ramps will generate more cars and trucks, overcrowding connecting roads in Alexandria and Fairfax – Route 1, Telegraph, and Van Dorn – and create a traffic bottleneck in Prince George’s County. It will make the construction of Metrorail more difficult.
Although VDOT is required by federal law to study reasonable alternatives, the agency is currently proposing to only evaluate toll lanes in its I-495 Southside study. Presentations last week suggest they won’t even evaluate less expensive transit and demand reduction alternatives or wait for Metro to finish its rail study.
Submit your comment today to tell VDOT to go back to the drawing board and develop a real alternatives analysis that includes a Metrorail and smart growth alternative.