High-Occupancy Toll Lanes on the Table for I-66 Inside the Beltway

"While Virginia’s transportation planners are still in the midst of formal public hearings on rebuilding I-66 outside the Capital Beltway, they’ve also announced two public forums this month on the separate plan for the inside-the-Beltway portion," reports Robert Thomson.

"Both projects would create high-occupancy toll lanes. The key difference is that the Virginia government wants to add highway outside the Beltway while keeping pretty much the same asphalt inside it."

Thomson lists the questions raised by the public so far in initial evaluations of the I-66 project, most of which focus on the tolls. The article also provides insight into how the Virginia Department of Transportation is handling the public outreach for the project.

In an earlier article, Thomson reports from early public meetings about the HOT lanes proposal outside the Beltway, where local residents, especially from the Vienna-Dunn Loring area, "feel like they’re being asked to shoulder the burden on a program meant to accommodate commuters coming from far west of where they live."