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NORTH STAFFORD, Va. — Highway crews in Stafford County spent a portion of their weekend installing new steel beams on a new flyover ramp at Garrisonville.
New steel was hoisted in place as part of a new ramp that will eventually carry traffic from newly paved High Occupancy Toll lanes that will extend from Dumfries in Prince William County to Garrisonville in Stafford County. Several lane closures and a temporary closure of the portion of the highway where work took place were put in place on Friday and Saturday nights.
The new steel comes as Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said the overall 95 Express Lanes Project is making progress and is expected to be completed late next year. The express lanes from Garrisonville to Edsall Road in Alexandria will allow drivers with three or more occupants inside their vehicles to use the lanes free with an E-Z Pass transponder, and single drivers will be given the option to pay with an E-Z Pass transponder to use the lanes.
More in a press release:
In the coming weeks, crews will complete the last major steel lifts within the project corridor, including beams for the future flyover ramp across I-95 near Garrisonville Road in mid-October and the future flyover ramp across I-395 near Edsall Road in early November.
Since starting construction of nine new bridges for the Express Lanes this past March, crews have placed more than 100 steel beams. A local disadvantaged business enterprise, Interlock Steelworkers, Inc., is performing the steel operations for the project, exemplifying VDOT’s and its partners’ commitment to providing opportunities to small and disadvantaged businesses in the local area.
As crews complete these steel operations, drivers can expect fewer full closures and detours of I-95 during the Express Lanes’ final year of construction.
Crews also are scheduled to complete the majority of new paving that must occur throughout the future Express Lanes alignment by late 2013 – placing nearly half a million tons of asphalt along I-95. The completion of paving will provide drivers with smoother and safer travel lanes, more than a year before the Express Lanes are slated to open. The paving also allows workers to shift traffic within the HOV lanes, which is necessary to complete the new Express Lanes.
