WASHINGTON –A proposal to place toll lanes on a portion of Interstate 66 has drawn concern among Arlington County residents, who fear the new lanes would push more traffic on to Arlington streets.
In trying to tackle congestion on I-66, the聽Virginia Department of Transportation has come up with the聽which聽proposes toll lanes inside the Beltway, between Rosslyn and Interstate 495, 聽during peak periods.
Virginia Del. Patrick Hope (D-47th District), who represents Arlington, invited V-DOT to brief the public on the proposed fixes Saturday聽at the Arlington Central Library鈥檚 auditorium.
鈥淚 want to hear what鈥檚 on your mind. I think it鈥檚 very important to hear what you鈥檙e thinking about this proposal and ways we could improve it,鈥澛燞ope said to residents.
Amanda Baxter, special projects development manager, said V-DOT鈥檚 studies on those proposed toll lanes were nearly complete.
Baxter cited聽two studies at Saturday’s briefing: One was聽the toll and revenue study that鈥檚 being done on the toll collection; the second study 聽was聽a traffic study conducted聽to understand congestion relief on I-66, as well as arterial diversion.
Hope said聽he’d like to see a comprehensive multi-modal approach to fixing I-66. He said he is聽hearing concerns and fears from constituents over V-DOT鈥檚 plan so far, but he’s also hearing that people want the problems fixed.
Baxter said聽V-DOT is expected to present its plan on the I-66 fix to the public in October. She also said the proposed toll lanes would be operated by V-DOT, which is not the case for the I-95 and I-495 express lanes in Virginia, which are operated by Transurban.
