The term "express" has a dual meaning on the 95 Express project in northern Virginia. For the more than 200,000 vehicles that travel the 29-mile stretch of Interstate 95 south of the Capital Beltway every day, the project, to be completed in early 2015, aims to relieve congestion and speed traffic flow. For engineers and construction crews, the goal is to expedite delivery of the $1-billion project built right in the middle of a heavily traveled artery.
The project will convert 20 miles of the highway's existing 40-year-old, dedicated high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes south of the Beltway into dynamically tolled lanes available to all motorists willing to pay. It also will widen 14 miles of existing HOV highway to three lanes from two and carve nine new miles of similarly reversible roadway out of the highway's median.