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VDOT releases draft environmental assessment of Interstate 95/395 HOT Lanes between Dumfries and Spotsylvania Date published: 8/19/2010 By Kelly Hannon A draft environmental assessment of High Occupancy Toll lane construction on Interstate 95 between Dumfries and Spotsylvania has been posted online. The Virginia Department of Transportation has posted the draft environmental assessment for public review at its Virginia MegaProjects website at vamegaprojects.com. Click on "I-95/395 HOT Lanes." Meetings to gather public comment on the environmental assessment will be held this fall in the Fredericksburg area, according to a VDOT news release. No dates were announced. No homes or businesses will be relocated as a result of the project, VDOT said in the statement, since the majority of construction will take place in the median of I-95. Virginia has entered into an early agreement with two private companies, Fluor Inc. and Transurban USA, to expand the existing two-lane high-occupancy-vehicle corridor on I-95/I-395 to three lanes as far south as Dumfries. This has been dubbed the project's "northern section." In the "southern section," two new lanes would be built in the median of I-95 from Dumfries to Massaponax. The entire project spans 56 miles end to end. HOT lanes would always be free for vehicles carrying three or more occupants, but vehicles with fewer occupants could pay a variable toll that changes based on the traffic volume. Virginia has spent years planning the toll lanes with Fluor-Transurban, but the parties have not yet signed a final financial agreement, which is needed before construction can begin. --Kelly Hannon
They sure knew what language to use to catch the attention of the current adminstration!
stop the HOT LANES. http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-
neighborhoods/2010/08/arlington-names-federal-highways-
chief-in-hot-lanes-suit-597.html
but their assertion is that white Stafford/Spotsy commuters
are favored over urban minorities...
so ya'll want to support that lawsuit? heh heh?
but I know the ICC is partially funded by other Md toll
roads.
VDOT/FHWA can and will certify roads that are
substandard. It's allowed. there are "soft" and "hard" regs.
but I thought ya'll might like this:
" The suit argues that the HOT lanes project, which would
make high-occupancy lanes on the Beltway and I-395
accessible to single-occupancy vehicles if they pay a toll,
unfairly favors "a financially-able privileged class of
suburban and rural, primarily Caucasian residents from
Stafford and Spotsy"
Why does MD seem to have the room and funds for widening I-95 all over the beltway and North of there?
FHWA, AASHTO, and VDOT all have an absolute minimum of 12' width and exceptions will have to be made. Those minimums are there for a reason and chaos will ensue when they are ignored. I think you have a good point though about the size of the vehicles - especially if no trucks are ever allowed on the narrow HOT lanes. The buses will still be rolling death traps but no trucks would go a long way to reducing the number of serious wrecks.
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