For years, Virginia has been working to extend its express lanes network on the I-495 capital beltway to the Maryland border on both the north and south sides of Washington DC. Both extension projects got some news in October: the 495 NEXT extension project to the north is now scheduled to open in late November, and the Southside Express Lanes project on the other side of the city is being delayed until at least next year.
The delay on the Southside Express Lanes comes after three years of environmental study. Last month, Washington D.C.’s Transportation Planning Board held a vote to delay the project a year for additional study and consensus building. The decision to delay the project was unanimous, since the project’s supporters on the board knew that it would be cancelled outright if it came to an up-or-down vote. The board’s resolution directs the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to come back in 2026 once it has completed some additional planning and secured more consensus from local communities.
Once 495 NEXT opens and if the Southside Express Lanes project is ever built, the two projects will complete an express lanes network on the entirety of the Capital Beltway, but only on the Virginia-side. That will make the region a natural experiment of sorts for transportation policy.
Transurban-led concessionaires already operate express lane projects on I-95, I-395 and I-495 in Virginia. A Cintra and Meridiam joint venture also operates express lanes on I-66 outside the beltway in Virginia.
Transurban is also leading the partnership that is delivering the 495 NEXT project, which is extending express lanes an additional 2.5 miles to the George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP) interchange near the American Legion Bridge. Lane Construction is the lead design-builder for the project. VDOT hasn’t indicated how it plans to procure the Southside Express Lanes extension if it ever gets approved by the Transportation Planning Board.
Board Punt
The Southside Express Lanes project would extend express lanes on the I-495 Capital Beltway approximately 11 miles from the I-95 intersection to the Route 210 intersection in Maryland, including across the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge. VDOT announced that it would begin an environmental study for the Southside Express Lanes project back in December 2021.
The Transportation Planning Board is the DC area’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) comprised of state and local officials from DC, Virginia and Maryland. The vote will keep the Southside Express lanes project out of the MPO’s air quality conformity analysis for its “Visualize 2050 Plan.” A provision in the Clean Air Act requires transportation projects to be included in an MPO’s long-term air quality plans in order to receive federal environmental approvals, making the DC MPO a key veto point for transportation projects in the region.
It is theoretically sensible to ensure there is regional air quality planning in metro areas that cross multiple planning jurisdictions, but few members of the MPO in this case are pretending that the decision has anything to do with long-term air quality plans. The staff report for the Visualize 2050 Plan is clear enough: “Upon completing the analysis, it was noted that the total regional emissions…calculated with and without [the Southside Express Lanes project] were identical.”
There certainly is opposition to the Southside Express Lanes project over environmental and traffic impacts. Another sticking point is potential future rail transit. The express lanes across the Wilson Memorial Bridge would run along space that was originally intended for a potential future Metrorail extension project. In a letter to the MPO prior to the vote, Virginia’s highway commissioner stated that any future contract for the Southside Express Lanes project would preserve the right to run rail transit along the corridor in the future. Nevertheless, transit advocates, especially in Prince George’s County, have come out against the express lanes project.
Rail transit along the corridor appears to be a long way off. The Washington Post’s reporting on the project includes a startling description: “A rail line across the Wilson Bridge would turn Metro’s Blue Line into the system’s first circular route, bring rail service to National Harbor and provide an alternative to a bottleneck at the Rosslyn tunnel. It would also cost about $35 billion…”
Bus transit uses the Virginia express lanes for free and the projects have provided millions in funding to support bus service in the region.
With the delay, VDOT will have a year to prepare additional plans and, more importantly, to build “consensus” with many regional stakeholders before submitting the project for inclusion in the air quality plan again in 2026.
495 NEXT Delivered
“We are pleased to be getting close to opening the new 495 Express Lanes extension,” said VDOT Megaprojects Director Michelle Shropshire in a statement. “This latest addition to Northern Virginia’s existing 94-mile network of connected express lanes will provide new choices for faster and more reliable travel, in an area of the Beltway that consistently faces lengthy backups and travel delays.
The $660 million extension project also included four miles of new bicycle and pedestrian connections, three new bridges and the rehabilitation of four existing bridges. The planned opening date for the extension is still too be determined, as construction crews are still completing final tasks to deliver the project, including lane marking and sign installation.
The 495 NEXT project also faced some local opposition during development. The project received an environmental lawsuit from the Northern Virginia Citizens Association in March 2023. The lawsuit game just days after Maryland’s own “OP Lanes” express lanes project was cancelled in predevelopment. The 495 NEXT project was originally intended to interconnect with Maryland’s express lanes project.
The environmental lawsuit claimed that the project was violating the National Environmental Policy Act because its designs had changed since the project’s environmental study was completed. VDOT completed an Environmental Assessment of the 495 NEXT project in late 2020 and published a Finding of No Significant Impact in 2021. In April 2023, a federal judge ruled against an injunction on the 495 NEXT project, which was already under construction at the time, in response to the lawsuit.
“The latest extension of the 495 Express Lanes again proves the power of partnership,” said Beau Memory, President, Transurban North America. “Investing in our community means more than just steel and concrete infrastructure – it is about creating lasting value through community benefits like multimodal travel choices and local organization investment.”
