Bacon's Rebellion

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I-495 HOT Lane Construction Begins in Early 2008

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Construction of HOT lanes on Interstate 495, the Washington Beltway, will begin early next year and last five years, reports Karen Brulliard with the Washington Post. The $1.7 billion project will stretch 14 miles and include nine dedicated interchanges with the Beltway, including three new access points to Tysons Corner.

The congestion tolls, which will vary by time of day, will be geared to keeping traffic flowing at optimal speeds and maximize capacity. The average trip during rush hour is expected to cost $5 to $6. Given the premium that many Northern Virginians put on their time, that’s a bargain. The four new lanes will continue to be free for buses and cars with three or more riders.

With HOT lanes planned for Interstate 95 as well, the beginnings of a free-flowing network are coming into place. Said Pierce R. Homer, secretary of transportation: “The Capital Beltway is the busiest and most congested highway in Virginia, and we believe we have come up with an affordable solution that brings transit and HOV services to that corridor for the first time. This means that a resident, say, from Aquia Harbour in Stafford who works in Tysons Corner can pick up two neighbors and drive on a congestion-free facility all the way, or that same person can ride a bus to that location. . . . It’s a brand-new travel option.”

But Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, contended that the state should not have relinquished operation of the HOT lanes to a private firm. Said Schwartz: “I would argue that there really is no real private cash on the table that comes from these deals. All these contractors are doing is serving as a sort of bond agent for the state.”

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17 responses to “I-495 HOT Lane Construction Begins in Early 2008”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I think the article said between $5 and $16, not six.

    It also pointed out that the additional cost of the flyover interchanges which were not part of the original plan will be funded by public money.

    And there will be some reconstruction of the Springfield interchange to accommodate carpool lane connections to the beltway, which were not planned because the beltway had no carpool lanes at that time.

    More fun.

    RH

  2. Jim Wamsley Avatar
    Jim Wamsley

    The Springfield intersection was designed with car pool lanes connecting to the beltway. This project will build them.

    The big questions are how much more congestion will this bring to Northern Virginia?

    What projects that should have been built will be delayed as we give tax money to toll road builders?

  3. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    first time I’ve heard that HOT lanes will BRING congestion rather than mitigate it.

    I admit to being pretty ignorant on a host of topics and perhaps this is yet another…

    .. but exactly what are the alternatives – realistic in terms of finances – to HOT lanes?

    I want to tell everyone that during my recent trip.. we spent time in rush hour traffic in Minneapolis. Chicago and I-270 into the Beltway – and I paid close attention to SOLO cars which comprise by FAR the vast majority of the vehicles during rush hour.

    We sat in stop/go traffic for more than an hour on I-270 connecting to the beltway and I could count on one hand out of thousands of vehicles the number – that had 3 people in them.

    No one in this blog (I think) would claim that the answer to I-270 traffic is … light rail… or METRO… so what is the answer?

    You don’t have the money to build more lanes unless those lanes are HOT lanes.

    alternatives?

  4. Jim Wamsley Avatar
    Jim Wamsley

    arry:

    The better alternative is rail. (Thanks to VDRPT for this info.)

    The Capital Beltway Corridor Rail Feasibility Study was initiated by the General
    Assembly to develop and identify the most feasible means of running rapid transit
    between Springfield and Tysons Corner and beyond to Maryland. A six-step process
    was formulated in which four different transit technologies were placed in three
    potential alignments. Each of these technology-alignment combinations was then
    tested against the stated purpose and need of the project. An initial analysis, which
    applied six evaluation criteria to the alternatives, reduced the field from ten
    alternatives to five. The five were scrutinized more closely using nine additional
    evaluation criteria and a series of conclusions and recommendations were
    formulated.

    Most Feasible Alternatives
    For each of the transit modes studied in Tier 2, the following are the most feasible
    alternatives for the corridor at this time. They are listed in no particular order:
    Monorail – Red, with a rail connection to Maryland from Tysons Corner to be
    consistent with the mode employed by Maryland;
    Heavy Rail – Red, with an additional station in the vicinity of the Braddock
    Road/Backlick Road intersection.; and
    Light Rail running on the Blue alignment south of Gallows Road and on the
    Red alignment north of Gallows Road.

    http://www.drpt.state.va.us/studies/files/bwr-executivesummary.pdf

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Dirty little secret.

    Donate 100K+ to Kaine.

    Get 100 million plus in tax dollars for dedicated interchanges to your developments.

    WestGroup knows how to play the game.

  6. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    until we tear up the freeways and replace them with light rail with money that we will never have enough of….

    … why not have as PART of any transportation policy – a focus on getting “more” out of the existing road grid?

    .. incent multi-passenger vehicles.

    each car whose driver parks and gets into another car – adds capacity and provides opportunity for bus rapid transit and interconnections with Metro/light rail.

    Driving through Indiana/Illinois – I got to try out my EZ-Pass through their high-speed tolling gantries – open road – no booths at all.

    Those without EZ-pass had to pull right and line up…for booths

    I’d say that the traffic was pretty much split or slightly favored EZ Pass.

    We never even touched the brakes… just back off on the accelerator a tad.. and breeze through…

    People will do this – and in the process.. money will be generated for other projects including transit.

    Parking requires parking lots – but those parking lots are also opportunities for BRT… and.. in general… multi-modal connectivity to light rail…

    why not see those parking lots as opportunity for mass transit?

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    thank you, Jim. I stand corrected. It would have seemed silly not to at least think about carpool lanes.

    RH

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Rail is not a better option, and just as subject to congestion, of its own.

    A better option is to eliminate the root cause of periodic congestion: an overabudance of jobs where transprtation cant support them reasonably.

    ” A new paper by a lead economist from the left-leaning Brookings Institute challenges the notion that any of the systems are truly adding much to the public good. As transportation expert Robert Poole explains, the paper looks at a number of factors and finds that the burden to the taxpayers for funding rail simply out weights the intrinsic benefits of having it:

    Winston and Maheshri construct an elaborate econometric model to estimate the “consumer surplus” of 25 rail transit systems. This is economists’ term for the benefits to users, over and above the fares they pay. The large systems (New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco’s BART, etc.) all produce significant consumer surpluses. But most of the smaller ones do not.

    Next, the authors compare the consumer surplus of each system with its net taxpayer cost. On this measure, every single one of the 25 systems has negative net benefits, i.e., the annual value of the benefits to users is much less than the annual cost to taxpayers. Surprisingly, this is true even for the massive New York City rail transit system, which by itself accounts for two-thirds of the nation’s rail transit passenger miles.

    But what about larger benefits to the metro area? Rail systems are advocated not just to benefit their riders, but because they are expected to reduce traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, save energy, etc. So the final step in Winston and Maheshri’s analysis was to estimate the value of these “externality” benefits. They first conclude that the only one of these purported benefits large enough to make any difference is congestion relief. Adding the congestion savings to road users to the consumer surplus gives the total benefits of rail transit.

    When this total is compared with the net taxpayer costs, only San Francisco’s BART produces net social benefits. Each year the system improves social welfare by an estimated $36 million. All 23 [sic] other U.S. rail transit systems are net losers.

    This means that each of those urban areas is made poorer by many millions of dollars each year.

    Here’s one of the most interesting things from Poole’s commentary:
    And there is also the claim that rail systems increase the mobility of low-income residents. But the authors point out that the median annual income of rail users in 2001 exceeded $50,000, which was greater than the median income of the general population in that year. So rail’s primary market is not the poor (unlike bus transit).

    Politicians love rail transit because it’s so tangible and looks so clean and polished. Plus they get to break ground on it – a photo op holding a shovel is much more exciting than sticking a Bus Stop in the ground. “

    RH

  9. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    The Seattle Monorail Project could end up being the most insanely expensive boondoggle ever devised. Today’s P-I — “Monorail’s building, debt costs balloon to $11 billion”

    It will cost more than $11 billion to pay for the 14-mile monorail Green Line project and the debt to finance it, according to documents made public yesterday.

    That’s more than triple what Sound Transit will pay for construction and debt service for its 14-mile light rail line from downtown Seattle to Tukwila.

    Never mind that the Monorail accomplishes next to nothing to relieve traffic congestion.

    RH

  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    The alternative is to stop bringing two and a half million people into and out of the city everyday.

    RH

  11. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    More places

    -NMM

  12. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    I’ll just repeat our recent experience that started about 20 miles west of the Washington Beltway the other day.

    Thousands of solo-driven automobiles… in slow-moving traffic that too more than an hour to get to the beltway which was no better.

    There were two buses – not full and less than a handful of cars with 3 or more folks in them – and to be honest no more than a dozen vehicles with 2 folks in them – and these looked a lot like husband/wife vehicles.

    I do not see Fairfax or any other locality telling new businesses (like VW) that they are not welcome. (the more places argument).

    I don’t see money for expanding the roads nor building transit.

    geeeeeze… if you can’t get folks to SHARE a car.. how would you get them to ride a train or bus?

    on the other hand… is there anyone that can truly characterize this situation as a “crisis” and keep a straight face?

    So.. would it be ugly to suggest that.. given the choice between building HOT lanes and encouraging less solo driving (at rush hour) … OR telling companies that they are not welcome …

    … we’d pick the later option?

    sorry folks…

    I think the HOT lanes present opportunities to spur transit.

    let me explain.

    if we build the HOT lanes .. AND we provide the parking for the folks who will decide to park and ride – we then have the perfect multi-modal transfer points for BRT – which then could link with light rail.

    The key is the parking lots…

    build them – and they will come.

  13. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    re: “Said Schwartz: “I would argue that there really is no real private cash on the table that comes from these deals. All these contractors are doing is serving as a sort of bond agent for the state.”

    As we move towards PPTA toll roads, an obvious question often expressed is … “why can’t the state do the same project itself without having a private company involved”?

    I think that is a fair question.

    I also wonder out loud.. why.. if the project is to be a private investor toll road – why State money is needed. (Ditto with US 460, and others).

    I think this aspect is important for all of us to understand.

    My perception (obviously wrong) is that you call in the private sector who will then do a “turn-key” project (including long term financing)… in exchange for tolls – which will cover all the costs (including financing) AND produce a profit.

    Why is public money needed?

    I find this aspect worrisome… in terms of what we don’t know and the why behind it.

    anyone have more info on this?

  14. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “Said Schwartz: “I would argue that there really is no real private cash on the table that comes from these deals. All these contractors are doing is serving as a sort of bond agent for the state.”

    For once, I agree with Schwartz.

    —————————-

    At some point you make a trade between the inefficiency of government and the profit of the private sector. Either way it comes out of your pocket. You may think that by concentrating the costs on the initial toll payers that you don’t pay, but it just isn’t so. We have far too many instances of taxes being imposed that fall on others than those that make the inital payment to government coffers. This is going to be another example.

    By having the taxes collected by private contractors they are off the budget and contribute to the lack of transparency in government.

    When Fauquier county approved a peaking power plant in the south of the county they exacted $3 million dollars in proffers. They used the money to buy op conservation easements, saying “Look, it didn’t cost taxpaers anything.

    True enough, unless the taxpayers also buy electricity, which now includes the cost of the proffers.

    RH

  15. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’ve traveled London & Rome soley by their mass public transportation and never needed a car. I could stay outside the city, and then travel anywhere into and inside the city via bus because they have designed their bus system to accomodate the traveler. Buses go EVERYWHERE and at the least every 20 minutes. Schedules are posted and kept. Once can purchase single tickets that will work for the subway, train and the buses. It is very very easy (even as a foreigner speaking a different language) to travel their public transportation system.

    This is definately NOT the case here in the U.S. therefore, few people utilize the subway, train, and bus. In addition, the rising cost of fuel is going to demand that we come up with more fuel efficient ways to travel.

    I don’t understand why we are spending money (and increasing traffic congestion during construction) to create MORE roads, when what we need is to improve our mass public transportation options! Parking structures can be built vertically, and do not need acres of land, that is a silly reason to say we shouldn’t extend the metro out to where the people who work in DC actually live!

  16. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    correction frin the London, Rome traveler: I used the train or metro to get into the city, and used the bus system to get to specific locations within the city. thanks

  17. Christopher Avatar
    Christopher

    I think the Hot lanes won't work until you have a seamless network that spans all the way around the Beltway, up 270, and down 1-95 to Stafford. This will encourage more people to go HOV-3, ride Buses for a much less painful drive to and from commuter lots. Taking cars off the Beltway has got to be a priority for Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC. There are simply too many people here now and not enough right-of-way anymore to widen further once this project is completed.
    .
    There are also a couple of other projects that will have a positive impact on rushhour traffic in DC. The first is the rebuilding of the 11th street bridge interchange. Once this is completed there will be a direct route from I-695 to I-295 without getting off at Pennsylvania Ave, and waiting for that long light, and getting back onto I-295 North bound as you do now. Not only will this release a decades old bottlekneck, it should cut down on the pileup at the 14th street bridge and New York Ave exits that people use to cut through the District
    .
    Another project that would dramatically improve traffic going into Maryland is widening I-495 East past I-270. Why they designed that series of crazy merges to only be 2 or 3 lanes, unlike the Virginia half is beyond me.
    .
    Finally, widen I-270 to four lanes northbound and South bound all the way from Hagerstown. This stretch should have been widened years ago but simply has never been done to the dismay of many.

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