I-66 inside Beltway toll plan unpopular at town hall

Republican state legislators said Northern Virginia residents are being treated like the state’s “ATM” for a plan to toll all lanes of Interstate 66 inside the Beltway.

Republican leaders from Richmond and locally elected GOP leaders in Prince William County gathered on stage Oct. 22 for a town hall meeting at Battlefield High School in Haymarket to protest the Virginia Department of Transportation Plan plan backed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

“These tolls will affect the value of your home and the number of businesses that will locate here,” said Delegate Robert G. Marshall.

All four lanes of I-66 inside the Beltway would be converted to toll lanes from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m., and 3 to 7 p.m. daily as part of the plan. Drivers would use an EZ-Pass, as drivers on the I-495 and I-95 Express lanes do, to electronically pay tolls of up to $17 per day starting in 2017.

Initially, cars with two or more occupants would ride free on the toll lanes with an EZ-Pass, but a change in the rules expected by 2017 would require vehicles with an EZ-Pass to have three or more occupants inside the car to ride free. I-66 is currently the only Interstate highway in the U.S. that allows vehicles with just two our more occupants to use HOV lanes.

Buses would ride the lanes for free at all times. VDOT says the plan would move 40,000 more people in the corridor, and raise cash for much-needed transit improvements along the corridor to include new commuter bus service, more park and ride lots, and new “last mile” improvements such as bicycle paths from Metro stations to allow more people to walk or ride a bike from the train to the office.

Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Lane penned a letter to Potomac Local stating that doing nothing to improve traffic congestion along the I-66 corridor is not an option.

The plan comes after the General Assembly in Richmond passed landmark transportation reform in 2013 that raised the state sales tax in Northern Virginia, and would generate some $880 million in new transportation revenues statewide. It was the first transportation reform bill passed in 27 years, and was heralded by the state’s then Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican.

“We passed [House Bill 2313] in 2013, and it was presented to us as a piece of legislation that would fund all of these needed transportation improvements,” said Delegate Richard Anderson, a Republican who voted gainst the bill. “And here we are back here with the state asking for more money.”

Unlike like toll projects on I-495 and 95 that are privately managed and maintained by Australia-based Transurban, the I-66 project was not shopped out to private firms as a public-private partnership. VDOT plans to construct electronic toll gantries inside the beltway to collect tolls. The agency also plans to add two new lanes to I-66 outside the Beltway, from I-495 to Route 15 in Haymarket, which will also operate as toll lanes 24 hours a day, in a configuration that mirrors toll lanes on I-495 from Springfield to Dulles Toll Road.

Democrats oppose the plan, too.

“This is not a partisan issue, ” said Don Shaw, who is running against Robert G. Marshall for the 13th District House of Delegates seat. “We need [Virignia Railway Express] to Haymarket, bus rapid transit lanes on I-66, and we need to explore an extension of Metro.”

Lane’s editorial stated I-66 inside the Beltway would be widened after the new toll lanes are implemented, but only if “necessary.” Those who choose not to pay the tolls would be forced to use arterial roads Routes 29 and 50.

Residents who spoke at the meeting complained that taking a transit bus from Manassas to Tysons Corner, to federal job hub of Mark Center in Alexandria can take more than two hours one way. Others said it is nearly impossible to find a group of people to carpool with due to the lack of a major, popular online ride matching website for area commuters to use to pair riders with drivers.

“You’re going to toll me for the pleasure of going to work where I make income, and then you are going to tax me on that income anyway,” said Morris Davis, who bought his home in Haymarket 10 years ago with the promise that Virginia Railway Express would be extended to the town. He’s still waiting.

Others said VDOT’s plan to add “last mile” improvements like bikepaths would only benefit Fairfax County residents.

“We don’t need bike paths. We don’t use them to get to D.C., or to Tysons because it would take too long,” said Prince William resident Kim Simons. “And we’ve got the [Manassas] Battlefield in the way, so the Department of the Interior would need to decide if we need a ‘battlefield bypass’ for bikes.”

VDOT officials held a series of public hearings on the plan to toll I-66 inside the Beltway. Construction on the project is expected to begin in Spring 2016, and toll collection could start in 2017.