HOT Lanes-495

Summary

The 495 HOT (High Occupancy Toll) Lanes Project is an innovative plan to help alleviate traffic problems experienced by Fairfax County commuters. The project will create four new lanes on the Beltway and essentially rebuild the entire beltway in the County, including all bridges and sound walls. The construction of HOT Lanes on the Beltway is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

The HOT Lanes Project is a public-private partnership between the Virginia Department of Transportation and Fluor-Transurban.

The HOT Lanes will allow vehicles that do not meet the HOV requirements to pay a toll, determined by demand, to be allowed onto the express lanes on the Capital Beltway (I-495). Vehicles with three or more people will be allowed free access to the lanes just as they are now to existing HOV lanes.

Allowing express bus service on the HOT Lanes is also a goal for the project.

Construction on the 495 Capital Beltway portion of the HOT Lanes project began in July 2008 and is on schedule to be completed in 2013 and cost $1.4 billion. The project involves the construction of four HOV/HOT lanes (two in each direction) on a 14-mile stretch of the Capital Beltway between the Springfield Interchange and just north of the Dulles Toll Road.

These HOT lanes will allow the Beltway to offer HOV-3 connections with I-95/395, I-66 and the Dulles Toll Road for the first time. When completed, buses, carpools and vanpools with three or more people and motorcycles can ride in the new lanes for free as they do on 95 and 395 now.