I saw this article from Tollroadnews http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4917 mainly the section from I-495 to US-29 at Gainesville.
It will probably be a long while for this to happen given that I-66 near Gainesville was just widened from 4 to 8 lanes and of course the costs to redo all the interchanges and bridges.
Not necessarily...they could do a HO/T conversion similar to what was done on I-394 and I-35W in the Minneapolis area. The conversion only took a few months.
I know through MWCOG (the local MPO) that the idea is being studied, but it's taking a lot lower priority to the I-95/395 HO/T lane project, and even an extension of the Beltway HO/T lanes up to the American Legion Bridge.
Lastly, this is yet another reason I take tollroadsnews.com with a grain of salt...first he doesn't cite any sources, second he includes his own opinions as if they were part of the official story.