I-95 E-ZPass Express Lanes to be extended to Fredericksburg

Drivers on Interstate 95 will see the E-ZPass Express Lanes extended from Stafford County into Fredericksburg, across the Rappahannock River. 

The new project announced today includes constructing a new bridge and replacing the existing bridges over the river.

From a press release: 

FREDERICKSBURG – The Commonwealth Transportation Board has awarded a contract worth approximately $101.6 million to Wagman Heavy Civil, Inc., of North Dinwiddie, to build the Interstate 95 southbound Rappahannock River Crossing project in Stafford County, the City of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County.

The project seeks to reduce I-95 congestion in the Fredericksburg area by providing local traffic with additional lanes to travel between Route 17 and Route 3 without merging into the interstate’s general purpose lanes.

The Rappahannock River Crossing will build three new general purpose lanes for I-95 south stretching six miles in the current median of I-95. The new lanes would begin in the vicinity of Truslow Road, just north of Exit 133 at Route 17 in Stafford. The new lanes will end 1.2 miles south of Exit 130 at Route 3 in Fredericksburg, with the project terminus in Spotsylvania.

The three existing I-95 southbound lanes in this area will be converted to local traffic lanes, also known as collector-distributor lanes.

A new bridge will be built over the Rappahannock River parallel to the existing I-95 southbound bridge to carry the new general purpose traffic lanes.

Additionally, the bridges that carry I-95 north and south over Route 17 will be replaced as part of the project. Both bridges are structurally deficient, which does not imply that the bridges are likely to collapse or are unsafe, but that there are elements of the bridges that need to be monitored and/or repaired.

Construction will begin in summer 2018 and will be completed in 2022.

The I-95 southbound Rappahannock River Crossing will be the next project to start construction as part of the Atlantic Gateway suite of projects. Virginia was awarded a $165 million FASTLANE grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in 2016 for Atlantic Gateway, a $1.4 billion set of highway, transit and rail projects in the I-95 corridor.

The USDOT’s FASTLANE competitive grant program, is part of a $4.6 billion, five-year program created by the FAST Act, which was signed into law in December 2015 and makes large-scale national investments to improve freight and highway mobility across the United States. Every grant under the program will be subject to a 60-day congressional review before final grant awards are announced.

For more information on the I-95 southbound Rappahannock River Crossing, and to see project designs, please visit the project page online at www.VirginiaDOT.org.