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[1995hoo]

I just liked the overhead view of the ramps taking shape:

https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/1404869448511729668

[1995hoo]

Seen on the 6:00 news just now. The Beltway towards Tysons runs north at the top center of the image.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: Transform 66 project on schedule for 2022 completion

Driving either direction on Interstate 66 west of Interstate 495, it’s impossible to miss the work on the 22.5-mile stretch of highway. But managers of the $3.7 billion Transform 66 project say work has never been moving faster.

Currently, about $60 million of work is being done every month and nearly 2,000 workers are on the job every day according to Susan Shaw, the Virginia Department of Transportation’s regional transportation program director for Northern Virginia. “So there’s a lot happening,”  she said.

Along most of the corridor, the focus is completing work toward the outside of the highway, so that traffic can then be diverted there while the toll lanes on the inside are being completed. That level of work is expected to continue through the fall, depending on the weather.

[bluecountry]

So it seems that at the Rt 29/I-66 interchange, the RT 29 underpass will be widened in width so as to have the space to allow a 3rd southbound auxiliary lane.  However, such a project is not part of the I-66 HOT and would be undertaken by either FCDOT or VDOT.

Are there any immediate plans by FCDOT or VDOT to have a 3rd SB RT 29 lane to prevent the massive bottleneck which occurs, as 29 goes quickly from 4 to 2 lanes before adding a short I-66 W exit lane?
I can't understand why FCDOT or VDOT would not prioritize and coordinate this to coincide with the completion of I-66.  It is not like it is a long expensive project.   

[bluecountry]

Been meaning to ask this for awhile, why is it this I-66 project has 'delivery' signs with weird code names 'Romeo' all over the corridor?
I have never seen a highway project with this kind of outward display, it seems unnecessary and needlessly micromanaging.
Didn't recall the NJTP 30 miles expansion having to make it this complicated.

[oscar]

Been meaning to ask this for awhile, why is it this I-66 project has 'delivery' signs with weird code names 'Romeo' all over the corridor?
I have never seen a highway project with this kind of outward display, it seems unnecessary and needlessly micromanaging.

All those code-named turnoffs are for construction traffic, not for ordinary travelers.

Some of them have "Area __" numerical codes. The number sequence came tantalizingly close to reaching "Area 51", but alas the turnoffs switched to alphabetical codes at that point.

[1995hoo]

The "code names" I noticed on those signs aren't really weird if you're familiar with the NATO alphabet, as they all track that alphabet. Good chance that scheme was selecting for reasons of clarity when communicating over the telephone or radio.

I use the NATO alphabet when I need to spell a word and it's amusing how many people seem unwilling to accept anything other than "T as in Tom" or "B as in Boy." My street's name starts with a "T" and if I spell it and then say "T, Tango" (this because some people have misheard it as a "P" over the years), some people (especially women, it seems) will try to "correct" me–"You mean 'T' as in 'Tom,' right?"

[Stephane Dumas]

Not directly linked to I-66 HOT lanes, Google Streetview had updated some Streetview of the VA-28 interchange showing the ramp going to Braddock Road and Walney road.
https://goo.gl/maps/v6mH6KdVnXCywxPU7

[mrsman]

The "code names" I noticed on those signs aren't really weird if you're familiar with the NATO alphabet, as they all track that alphabet. Good chance that scheme was selecting for reasons of clarity when communicating over the telephone or radio.

I use the NATO alphabet when I need to spell a word and it's amusing how many people seem unwilling to accept anything other than "T as in Tom" or "B as in Boy." My street's name starts with a "T" and if I spell it and then say "T, Tango" (this because some people have misheard it as a "P" over the years), some people (especially women, it seems) will try to "correct" me–"You mean 'T' as in 'Tom,' right?"

NATO is definitely the standard for military folks, but many police departments still follow the APCO standard.  The APCO standard seems easier for civilians (non-military and non-police) , since the words used are far more common, at least for native English speakers.

The table here compares the two:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APCO_radiotelephony_spelling_alphabet

In my early days of working, I would sometimes need to point someone to a website document by phone.  I often used Paul-David-Frank to refer to pdf.  (Nowadays, pdf usage is so common that it is no longer necessary to spell it out.)

FWIW, Tom and Boy are also on the old APCO lists.

[AlexandriaVA]

Many military and civilian DOD residents in the DC area....

[1995hoo]

Many military and civilian DOD residents in the DC area....

I'm neither, but I picked up the NATO alphabet a long time ago. My father served in the Army, though he was discharged when I was two years old so I don't remember those days too well other than only the absolute vaguest of memories of occasional trips to the old commissary at Cameron Station with my mother.

[bluecountry]

But why is this on 66 and not other roads, this is the only time I ever have seen it.

[1995hoo]

Maybe the length of the work zone (20 miles)? I don't know, that's just a guess, but it would make sense that they'd want some way to identify specific locations, and mileposts are likely not a good option in a reconstruction project of this one's extent.

[Mapmikey]

Maybe the length of the work zone (20 miles)? I don't know, that's just a guess, but it would make sense that they'd want some way to identify specific locations, and mileposts are likely not a good option in a reconstruction project of this one's extent.

There have definitely been other Virginia projects where construction entrances were letters (though not full code names).

2011 GMSV captured it on I-81 truck lane project north of Lexington
https://goo.gl/maps/Z6cwakVwW3CTakc98

[1995hoo]

Nice overhead view of the I-66/I-495 interchange progress as part of the HO/T lane project. The picture was taken on March 2 and is from transform66.org. North is at the bottom of the image–for those who don't know the area, I-66 crosses from east (left bottom of image) to west (top right).

The part that looks the weirdest is the route from the I-495 Inner Loop HO/T lanes to the westbound I-66 general-purpose lanes.

[1995hoo]

The Washington Post reports that the flyover from the Inner Loop to westbound I-66 is scheduled to open next week:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/08/18/virginia-i66-express-lanes-opening/ (may be paywalled for some users)

The article says the I-66 HO/T lanes are still scheduled to open by the end of this year. I haven't driven the full length of the work zone since this past March, but on a partial trip through the work zone earlier this month (driving east from Linden and exiting at the Fairfax County Parkway, Exit 55) it certainly didn't look like everything was likely to be finished by December.

Here are two photos from that article, the first looking eastbound at the Beltway/I-66 interchange and the second looking northbound at the I-66/Route 28 interchange.

[jmacswimmer]

^

I drove the length of the project last Saturday morning - I agree that the project doesn't look on track to finish by December east of exit 52 (with the main holdups appearing to be flyover construction at the more complicated interchanges), but west of exit 52 does look on track. A lane shift within the exit 52 interchange puts westbound traffic on the 2 eventual-HOT lanes & 2 of the eventual-GP lanes, with the rightmost GP lane currently coned off.

Not the greatest quality, but here's 4 photos I took:


Westbound at exit 62 & the Vienna Metro station, with the 4 lanes temporarily divided into 2-&-2 thru the interchange area


Westbound approaching exit 57, with traffic shunted all the way to the right


Westbound at exit 53B, which now departs the mainline well ahead of the actual interchange so that HOT-lane traffic can cross the flyover in the distance and merge with this ramp prior to reaching VA 28


Westbound approaching the Manassas rest area (easy to forget it still exists) - after the aforementioned lane shift at exit 52, it took me a while to realize that the solid line between the middle lanes was because I was riding on what will eventually be the right HOT-lane!

[1995hoo]

The new ramp from the Inner Loop to I-66 opened at 5:00 this morning. There was a news report about it at lunchtime and I rather enjoyed that my wife was rather impressed by the ramp, as she normally finds these sorts of things boring.

https://twitter.com/WTOPtraffic/status/1562873207559839745


..........and then there's this: 

https://twitter.com/monkeyrotica/status/1562404462223826944

[1995hoo]

^^^^^

I drove to Falls Church yesterday for a funeral Mass and I noted the sign shown in the first tweet in my previous post is not yet in place. Instead, the old signs for the I-66 interchange are still up with the distances changed using what I guess you could call "orange-out" (that is, like greenout but the pieces are black-on-orange construction pieces). I was heading inbound on I-66, so I had no reason to use the new ramp and I therefore took the Beltway express lanes so as to avoid any incidents caused by people unaware of the new configuration who might be swerving. The thing I noted was that for the future Inner Loop HO/T to westbound I-66 general-purpose movement, the right turn from the existing ramp onto the still-under-construction connection to the new flyover is going to be one heck of a sharp right turn.

I hadn’t been to Falls Church via that route in a few years–more often I take US-29, but in this case the church where I was headed is closer to I-66. When I exited I-66 at Route 7, I was momentarily surprised to see the new connector ramp on the left that provides access to the West Falls Church Metro without having to go through the streets. That minuscule connection makes so much sense that I found myself thinking they should have built it 40 years ago when I-66 inside the Beltway opened (recognizing the Metrorail between Ballston and Vienna didn’t open until June 1986, but provisions for future access are hardly unusual).

[davewiecking]

…
The thing I noted was that for the future Inner Loop HO/T to westbound I-66 general-purpose movement, the right turn from the existing ramp onto the still-under-construction connection to the new flyover is going to be one heck of a sharp right turn.

I believe you’re referring to the ramp ID’d as 495HNGW on
https://outside.transform66.org/documents/segment3_09_495.pdf . Looking at the overhead photos, I’ve thought something didn’t seem right about the beginning of that ramp.

[1995hoo]

…
The thing I noted was that for the future Inner Loop HO/T to westbound I-66 general-purpose movement, the right turn from the existing ramp onto the still-under-construction connection to the new flyover is going to be one heck of a sharp right turn.

I believe you’re referring to the ramp ID’d as 495HNGW on
https://outside.transform66.org/documents/segment3_09_495.pdf . Looking at the overhead photos, I’ve thought something didn’t seem right about the beginning of that ramp.

That is correct. If you look at the photo in the tweet from Channel 7 in my other post above, you can see where that ramp is under construction (stub ramp to the left of the I-495 North shield in the photo). The diagram in the link you posted makes the right turn look a lot more gradual than it seemed like it would be when I drove through there yesterday.

Thanks for that link, BTW. I had looked at some of the diagrams on that site in the past but had trouble reading them on my iPad screen. I'm viewing it on my PC this morning and it's easier to get the bigger picture on the larger screen.

[1995hoo]

I had the TV on while I was eating lunch just now and Channel 7 reported that VDOT expects the I-66 HO/T lanes' western portion, between Centreville (they didn't specify where) and near Gainesville, to open next weekend (September 10 or 11). They still expect the remaining part from Centreville to the Beltway to open in December.

Here's the online version with some pictures.

[MillTheRoadgeek]

^

I drove the length of the project last Saturday morning - I agree that the project doesn't look on track to finish by December east of exit 52 (with the main holdups appearing to be flyover construction at the more complicated interchanges), but west of exit 52 does look on track. A lane shift within the exit 52 interchange puts westbound traffic on the 2 eventual-HOT lanes & 2 of the eventual-GP lanes, with the rightmost GP lane currently coned off.

Not the greatest quality, but here's 4 photos I took:


Westbound at exit 62 & the Vienna Metro station, with the 4 lanes temporarily divided into 2-&-2 thru the interchange area


Westbound approaching exit 57, with traffic shunted all the way to the right


Westbound at exit 53B, which now departs the mainline well ahead of the actual interchange so that HOT-lane traffic can cross the flyover in the distance and merge with this ramp prior to reaching VA 28


Westbound approaching the Manassas rest area (easy to forget it still exists) - after the aforementioned lane shift at exit 52, it took me a while to realize that the solid line between the middle lanes was because I was riding on what will eventually be the right HOT-lane!

I'm going to be honest. The new BGS all up the corridor look really neat and straight to the point, some of the best design I've seen in the area. Bonus points for Highway Gothic too.

As for the 495/66 interchange, I find it a little wasteful they didn't set things up like that when 495's HOT lanes went in. Wasteful seeing all that landscaping and original ramps/sound walls being torn up only 6-8 years into its existence.

[Roadsguy]

I'm going to be honest. The new BGS all up the corridor look really neat and straight to the point, some of the best design I've seen in the area. Bonus points for Highway Gothic too.

I agree. Good job, VDOT!

Always nice to discover that one of these large projects just happened to sneak in during the brief prohibition of Clearview, like the I-95/PA Turnpike connection or the PA 576 Southern Beltway, both  in Pennsylvania.

[MillTheRoadgeek]

Always nice to discover that one of these large projects just happened to sneak in during the brief prohibition of Clearview, like the I-95/PA Turnpike connection or the PA 576 Southern Beltway, both  in Pennsylvania.

Was Clearview really prohibited everywhere? I mean, for one all these signs have been implemented after the ban was repealed, and I'm pretty sure all the regular VA street signs had carried on with using Clearview.