What Is 495NEXT?

The Virginia Department of Transportation (V.D.O.T) has begun to take miles of our land, parks and trees. They are planning to extend the HOT lanes into these parks and even our homes.

In order to complete this project V.D.O.T requires extra land, extra land they plan to obtain by taking parts of Virginia resident’s front lawns and backyards.

Not only is this devastating to the environment but it’s also devastating to our community.

This area prides itself on being a place where your children can ride their bikes around or play in the front yard without worry of traffic (my family, personally, moved here from Brooklyn, N.Y. when I was about 4 years old for this exact reason). This expansion will put our area right on the side of the highway, making what once was family friendly, a dangerous place with fast cars and unbreathable air.  

VDOT and this corporation can’t add general use lanes because they won’t pass environmental standards. Acting under a legal loop hole of “intermittent lanes,” V.D.O.T has been able to forgo ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES.

These lanes won’t solve any problems. Instead of making general lanes for all to use, V.D.O.T plans to expand the HOT lanes. Currently the HOT lanes can cost anywhere from $8-18. These prices are only going up and won’t solve any of our traffic issues.

Currently, these HOT lanes are rarely used and most people opt to sit in traffic instead of pay an outrageous $18 to go 3 miles. Next time you’re driving down I -495, I implore you to look into the hot lanes. If you do you’ll see a pattern emerge; little to no cars in the hot lanes and the rest of traffic stuck at a standstill for hours on end.

Prices will stay high and all the land taken will have been for nothing. Those who can’t afford the HOT lanes will be stuck in the even worse traffic than before.

The HOT Lane Expansion proposal would extend the current HOT Lanes all the way to American Legion Bridge, but Maryland currently has not planned to widen the bridge or the beltway beyond it.  They are still in an extensive study phase and are at best years from any implementation if that is the course they decide to take.  These 4 lanes will have to merge back in at the bridge causing more gridlock. How does it make sense for Virginia to build ahead of Maryland? 

VDOT showed Fairfax Country Officials data and concluded that Virginia and the bridge had enough capacity and that the backup was the result of the Maryland side.  495 North of the Beltway and 270 cannot handle the volume. 

VDOT Supervisor Susan Shaw and County Supervisor Foust stated that the ultimate solution is with Maryland. The proposed new lanes and flyover ramps in VA are moving the problem, not solving the problem.  

What has changed that this is being rushed through now?

The proposed expansion requires confiscating parts of National Park Lands, including areas in Scotts Run Nature Preserve, Timberly Park, McLean Hamlet Park, and pieces of our HISTORIC Potomac Heritage Trail & GW Parkway. This land is protected.  

“Scott’s Run Nature Preserve is one of only a few nature preserves in the Fairfax County Park Authority system. It is a remarkable place of rare plants and splendid beauty. Yet that beauty is “challenged by urban pollution and human destruction.” 

What is the National Parks Service and the Fairfax County Park Authority doing to preserve what they call “remarkable beauty preserved” stating that “Scott’s Run Nature Preserve is one of only a few nature preserves in the Fairfax County Park Authority system. It is a remarkable place of rare plants and splendid beauty. Yet that beauty is “challenged by urban pollution and human destruction.” The beltway is already at environmental limits for noise and pollution.

There are several schools and an outdoor swim club right near the proposed expansion  We know from the NIH that the effect of increased air and noise pollution on our children is detrimental to neurological development.

Who is thinking about our kids’ health?

The proposed area of expansion is the single biggest chokepoint in the county, yet VDOT, the County, our local elected officials, our Governor, and the Federal Highway Administration have rubber-stamped this project. 

If they go forward, a corporation will own the road. A private corporation will be 100% owner of the largest, most important part of the PUBLIC beltway.

Virginia and Maryland taxpayers will be subject to their control over the project and future revenue streams. According to the corporation’s current annual report, they “had a very successful year.” In fact, their profit from ordinary activities after tax increased 124.0%. 

We sell our parks, our environment, our land, pay taxes and what is the State’s solution? More expensive, unused express lanes.

We should require transparency and real/verifiable solutions to traffic, financial value, smart options, community protection, environmental protection.  

According to recent local press, it is unknown as to whether or not Maryland has the funding to do their part of the project expansion, including the bridge.

For us to do the Virginia side of this expansion and wait however many years for Maryland to provide the solution is incomprehensible. 

We are asking Virginia residents to help us in fighting this atrocity and are begging our officials to step up to the plate and serve and protect this community, as they were elected to do.