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TREES IN INTERSTATE 95 MEDIAN WILL GIVE WAY TO HOT LANES

Trees will be cut down in the median of Interstate 95 for proposed toll lanes project

Date published: 7/17/2008

By KELLY HANNON

Around mile-marker 152, the asphalt in the median of Interstate 95 gives way to lush, dense trees.

The trees separate northbound and southbound traffic from Dumfries to Fredericksburg, with open grassy areas in a few breaks.

The trees are the demarcation line between the Fredericksburg area and Northern Virginia, where the I-95 High Occupancy Vehicle lanes begin.

The greenery could disappear when High Occupancy Toll lanes are built from Prince William to Spotsylvania.

Conceptual design plans call for two reversible HOT lanes to be built in the median of I-95. The lanes will be used by vehicles carrying three occupants or more, or toll-paying solo drivers.

The elimination of trees near the Capitol Beltway toll lane project recently got attention in Fairfax County, where residents feared that the leafy buffer between them and the highway was evaporating.

On the Beltway, a public-private project between the Virginia Department of Transportation, Fluor Inc. and Transurban USA recently removed trees for construction staging areas along the Beltway.

Interstate 495 does not have a wide median, so two new traffic lanes must be built on the outside of the highway in each direction, removing some trees in the right-of-way.

VDOT learned lessons from its tree-removal experience on the Beltway, said Mary Myers, public affairs manager for VDOT's MegaProjects.

"If trees are going to be removed for a staging area, there should be more notice and outreach to the public," Meyer said.

VDOT is working with residents to remove as few trees as possible along the Beltway toll lane construction zone, Meyer said.

However, since the I-95 project is still under environmental review, the design has not been finalized, and officials could not comment on when and where trees would be removed in the Fredericksburg area.

When Interstate 95 opened in the Fredericksburg area in 1964, many of the trees in the median were already growing there.

Harry Lee, VDOT assistant district administrator for the Fredericksburg District, worked on the I-95 project when he first arrived at the agency.

"We only cleared what we needed to build the roadway," Lee said, "and if there were trees in the median, they remained."

Public hearings on the I-95/395 project will be held in the Fredericksburg area in December or January, Meyer said. Exact dates have not been set.

Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com

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Date published: 7/17/2008

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