The 95 Express Lanes project also boasts the second-highest level of participation by disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) and small and woman- or minority-owned (SWaM) firms for Northern Virginia transportation projects, with nearly $193 million committed to more than 130 qualified subcontractors, exceeding the $189-million initial goal. Only the I-495 Express Lanes ranked higher, VDOT says.

With the I-95 Express Lanes nearly 75% complete as of July and heavy construction all but done, the focus has shifted to completing the installation of more than 50,000 linear ft of sound walls to protect neighborhoods adjacent to I-95's right-of-way. Other priorities are paving and finishing barriers, guardrails and stormwater management systems.

The project team also is getting a head start on closing out the project's completed elements. "That's one of the valuable lessons learned from I-495," Prezioso says. "There'd just be too much to do if we waited until everything was finished."

Also being readied are the tolling gantries, cameras, traffic-management equipment and other systems that will tie into Transurban's joint I-495/95 operations center in Springfield. More than 900 devices will combine to monitor traffic speed, congestion and incidents in the express and general-purpose lanes, updating the toll pricing system with new information every six minutes.

Completion of Northern Virginia's Express Lanes network is now just months away. That milestone will bring to a close nearly eight years of continuous highway construction since the I-495 project began in 2008. VDOT program manager H.S. Warraich observes that, compared with the five-year I-495 project, "I-95 has moved at warp speed."