I am skeptical of HOT lanes and downright against leasing public roads to private companies, something Sun columnist Jay Hancock described as “transforming public utilities into private monopolies.” Looks like we’ll get to see whether my aversion to those two things is warranted.

As for the I-66 widening I think it is the right thing to do, provided that the Custis Trail is open throughout the process. Here is the plan:

The I-66 project would connect a series of acceleration and deceleration lanes, widening the westbound roadway from two to three lanes between Fairfax Drive and Sycamore Street and expanding it between Washington Boulevard and the Dulles Airport Access Road from three lanes to four. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2010.

That sounds a lot like my proposal from over two years ago:

How about adding a lane between exits 67 and 71 in each direction, rather than all the way to/from Rosslyn? Experience from my daily commute on the road suggests that the backups occur in large part due to the lane drops after the Dulles Access Road and Fairfax Drive on-ramps. If VDOT just extended those merge lanes into travel lanes, there would be much less merging from those roads, which to my eyes is the root of most of the backups.

Adding a lane from Rosslyn west does not eliminate the merge at Fairfax Drive and may even make it worse. Lastly, I think this has a better chance politically, since VDOT can probably show a lot of traffic that gets on at Fairfax Drive and gets off at Dulles Access Road and vice-versa.

There is probably a reason VDOT wants to have the extra lane end at Sycamore St. My idea sounds better to me, but I’ll trust their professional judgment, but reserve the right to question the results.

Interstate shields courtesy of Shields Up!

I-95, I-395, I-66, interstate, Arlington, VA, DC, Shirley Highway