Southside Express Lanes (South Side project)
Sierra Club Press Release: - Transportation Planning Board Votes to Remove Southside Express Lanes Project from Regional Plan
Washington, D.C. - During a meeting at the Transportation Planning Board today, leaders from DC, Maryland, and Virginia voted to exclude the controversial Southside Express Lanes project from the regional plan Visualize 2050. The project proposed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) would have added two toll lanes in each direction on the Capital Beltway from Springfield, VA, over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and terminate at MD 210 in Prince George’s County. The project cannot proceed to construction until it is included in the plan.
Local elected officials and community advocates cautioned that the project would create a bottleneck on the Beltway into Prince George’s County and an insurmountable barrier to expanding Metrorail over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which was designed to accommodate future rail. There were additional concerns about pollution, traffic, and safety impacts on local roads that advocates claimed VDOT had failed to address.
Click here - Sierra Club Press Release:
Click here - Transportation Planning Board
Click here - Your Maryland elected officials!
Plan to extend Beltway Express Lanes not approved; VDOT vows to try again,
Stop the Flawed 495 Toll Expansion
Incomplete Studies: VDOT has refused to analyze the traffic impact on major local roads, including MD 210, Route 1, and Van Dorn St.
Environmental Damage: The proposed construction would clear woods and permanently damage local streams and wetlands.
Blocks Future Metro: This expansion would likely prevent future Metrorail service across the Wilson Bridge, cutting off a vital transit opportunity.
I am against the "Southside Project - James Lawson
I live in Accokeek, Maryland. My home is 17 miles south on Indian Head Highway (210). I have lived in Accokeek, Maryland, since 2003. I am now retired.
Before I retired, I worked in Fairfax, Virginia, and commuted from Accokeek to Fairfax five days a week. I have spent a lot of time on Indian Head Highway and the beltway trying to get to work. I have come to know the traffic patterns well.
“You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.” I don’t have to be a traffic expert to know that if you accelerate traffic out of Virginia through six lanes feeding into four lanes on the Maryland side, it will create massive traffic bottlenecks there.
Indian Head Highway (210) carries over 80,000 cars every day. Many of those cars are on the road during rush hour and use 210 to and 495 to reach their destinations. During rush hour, there are traffic bottlenecks at the intersection of Indian Head Highway and 495, as well as many automobile accidents.
If you build the Southside project, you will create a massive traffic jam at the intersection of Indian Head Highway and 495. The only way out of this part of South County is 210. Every year, developers construct large numbers of homes, and more people are using 210 to get to work.
If you build the Southside project, you will create a massive traffic bottleneck on the Maryland side of 495 and create a traffic problem that will force Maryland to spend enormous sums of money to solve. Maryland would rather spend money on rapid rail across the bridge. The South Side project will use space on the bridge reserved for rapid rail, making rapid rail across the bridge impossible in the future.
