I-95 HOT Lanes aka "Toll road" (Springfield, Fredericksburg: purchaser, contractor)

[seiketsu]

I don't understand the people who pay $7 and then roll along in the left lane at 60-65 with a line of cars building behind them. It's like...lol, you didn't want to do that for free? There are times during the morning rush when traffic on the inner loop moves faster than in the hot lanes.

[FCNova]

Wow traffic sucked driving back from the beach Saturday afternoon. They had the HOV lanes shut down for construction. Can't wait until this project is finished early next year(or mid next year after some 'unexpected' expected delays). Just in time for my next beach trip hopefully.

[greekchampion04]

Traffic sucks every day going home now. They never pick up the cones in time... even leaving downtown at 2:30 it takes almost 2 hours to get to Fredericksburg. That bottleneck at 152 is insane... thing is, all this project will do is move the bottleneck 9 miles south to 143.

[gomason]

It was nice moving to Kingstowne and being right off of one of the HOV ramps. Then they decided they were going to close the HOV lanes on weekends, past 8 pm, and mid-day. It's easier to get to Kingstowne from the HOV exit than the regular exit off of the general lanes.

It will really suck when the rennovated Springfield Mall opens and causes even more traffic around the 95 ramps.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by greekchampion04

Traffic sucks every day going home now. They never pick up the cones in time... even leaving downtown at 2:30 it takes almost 2 hours to get to Fredericksburg. That bottleneck at 152 is insane... thing is, all this project will do is move the bottleneck 9 miles south to 143.

Well right now there are 2 bottlenecks. Fredericksburg and then the clusterf--- approaching the mixing bowl. This will hopefully alleviate the latter. But yeah, I wish they'd extended this all the way past Fredericksburg. And reconfigured some of the roads there. That bottleneck isn't going anywhere.

[greekchampion04]

The mixingbowl is nowhere near as bad... at least by then if you are in the HOV it is clear sailing. It seems to be daily gridlock from 152-143 on 95 headed south any time after 3pm. Hell, even heading north at 5am you come to a full stop approaching 143.

I actually got so tired of it that I started doing VRE today. Takes 20 minutes longer in the morning, but will save time in the evening.

[gomason]

Yeah, mixing bowl isn't really that congested at all. The other choke point is the Ocoquan bridge into Woodbridge and Prince William County. That always is backed up.

I'm pretty sure 95 will be under construction for at least the next decade. They'll add a lane here and there every couple years.

[Zack]

Originally Posted by gomason

I'm pretty sure 95 will be under construction for at least the next decade. They'll add a lane here and there every couple years.

VDOT would have really been better off building a much bigger project than they did to avoid having to continuously do construction on I-95. I would suggest that they build 95 as 4 regular + 2 HOT lanes each way to Fredericksburg (or 3 regular and 3 HOT if they need enough private investment to make the project work), vice what they are doing now which is only partially fixing that corridor's issues. There's enough right of way to fit a lot of lanes in that corridor and the demand is there.

[$mk8795]

VDOT should have used the same configuration as in New Jersey with the current expansion of the I-95 New Jersey Turnpike.

http:// http://www.njturnpikewidening.com/

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by $mk8795

VDOT should have used the same configuration as in New Jersey with the current expansion of the I-95 New Jersey Turnpike.

http:// http://www.njturnpikewidening.com/

I could not have said it better myself. That absolutely is what SHOULD HAVE but WAS NOT done.
VA and McBob did a real half assed job.

First, I 95 sucks to exit 126 for the same reason the Jersey a Turnpike in Central Jersey sucks. I call it Central Jersey Turnpike Theory. I 95 gets as if not more congested the further south towards Fredericksburg, which is an inverse of what one would expect. Normally as you move away from the urban core, congestion eases. However, in Central Jersey, I 295 ends and so long distance and local traffic are squeezed onto the same road. There's less development but only one through route.

Stafford to exit 126 has the same issue, compounded because there has been a ton of growth. Thus local traffic has increased, but there is only one through route.

The best solution would have been to expand I 95 to a 4-2-2-4 setup like the beltway to Massapanox with 2 HOT lanes in each direction.

Instead we just stretched the central lanes about 12 miles, then stripped them of HOV 2 and general use for tolls.
HOT lanes are a good practical solution for NEW lanes and roads. THEY are absurd when not adding capacity and using previously free lanes.

This project won't help and may make things worse.