"Does anybody have a dime?"
Posted on 02/09/2018 10:44:38 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced a deal Wednesday that will add 10 more miles of express lanes to the Interstate 95 corridor, expanding the system of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes to Fredericksburg by 2022.
As part of the agreement, the private company building the lanes will give the state $277 million upfront to cover costs of a bridge over the Rappahannock River and other improvements along the corridor, Virginia transportation officials said.
The deal essentially moves forward a 10-mile extension from Garrisonville Road (Route 610) in Stafford County to Route 17 in the Fredericksburg area. It also builds on McAuliffe’s transportation legacy, greatly focused on expanding tolling facilities to relieve traffic in some of the state’s most congested corridors and generating funds for other transportation projects.
McAuliffe’s four-year term ends Saturday.
“This deal will not require any upfront taxpayer investment for construction, and will provide $277 million by the time the express lanes are open that will be invested in the corridor to advance critical transportation projects,” McAuliffe told the Commonwealth Transportation Board on Wednesday morning.
About 45 miles of express lanes have opened on interstates 495 and 95 within the past five years, and the state last month opened another 10 miles of HOT lanes on Interstate 66, inside the Capital Beltway.
On I-66 outside the Beltway, construction is set to begin this year on a $2.3 billion expansion that will add 22.5 miles of toll lanes by 2022, from the Beltway to University Boulevard in Gainesville in Prince William County. And construction is also underway this year along an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 395, where today’s high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are being converted into toll lanes.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Fredericksburg is the natural end point for the 95 Express lanes.
I have think the state has 277 million reasons to delay the bridge.......
Clinton’s Bag Man belongs in prison.
Yep, gonna need to go back and get a crapload of dimes to drive these new lanes.
After 61 Years, America’s Busiest Highway Is Almost Complete
An infamous gap in Interstate 95 will finally be closed this summer.
One more step for Democratic party plan to use poverty to produce slavery of the masses.
I despise McCauliffe, but his privatization started when Bob McDonnell was governor. The I-475 HOV lanes were the first built with in-road sensors. It was built by an Australian contractor pretty quickly.
Tolls are better than direct tax hikes, at least in theory. I would like to know if there is a sunset on the tolls, but most toll roads don’t.
Plus, this is going to hammer the Libs driving in NoVa, so good for them. They deserve it
Some people define the word a-hole.
I suppose Virginia could remove the tolls when Fluor-Transurban hands the lanes back to them in 2083, but I doubt that will happen.
Just Curious, how can a state put a “toll” on a FEDERAL Highway?
“Clinton’s Bag Man belongs in prison.”
Which one of his old schoolchums/kissincuzzins got the conract
FT could indeed do so, but unlikely. If there is a U.S. still around then, we might be back to trading seashells as currency
Federal law allows new highway lanes to be tolled, but except for a pilot program, does not allow existing lanes to be tolled.
Sounds like they’re bringing back the ICC on a state level where truck lines would pay for operating rights on a given route.
Thank you.
Frankly, the number one thing needed in that section would be an extra lane on the I95 bridge between route 17 and route 3. An extra lane would facilite the traffic that has to come onto 95 to get over the river, and stop the 15-minute backup on route 17 every day, along with tail end of the 10 mile backup on 95.
If they could squeeze a lane into that bridge, I’d be happy.
Unfortunately, the HOT lanes probably won’t be a 4-lane bridge, it’s going to be more of the 2-lane one-direction thing, which if you’ve driven in fredericksburg, you’ll know the traffic there is getting backed up both ways at odd times.
I should have been clearer.
THe HOT lanes don’t include crossing the river. But I missed that we are already building the additional southbound crossing, and this agreement funds the northbound crossing, which will give us 4 new lanes, 2 each direction.
The HOT itself is going to stop at route 17.
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