Get ready for I-95 closures

Transportation officials will close a portion of Interstate 95 next month as crews work to widen the highway to 10 lanes.

The work to add an extra lane on both sides of the highway is from the Lorton exit at mile post 160 to the Fairfax County Parkway. Crews will close this portion of the roadway Sept. 21 and Sept. 22, in separate intervals.

Crews will replace overhead signs along the route and do not want to risk one of them falling on top of a passing car, said Virginia Department of Transportation project manager Charlie Warraich.

“If there is even a small chance that something could fall and injure someone, we have to take every precaution we can to ensure that doesn’t happen,” said Warraich.

The first closure is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. Sept. 21, then again with later closures at 1 and 2 a.m. The same will happen on the following day, said VDOT spokesman Steven M. Titunik.

The closures are expected to last about 30 minutes each and drivers have been told to expect delays of about 45 minutes during each closure.

Car drivers will have the option of using U.S. 1 to get around the delays, but because of a low-hanging rail just north of Woodbridge, trucks will not be able to use the road.

Warraich said truckers will be told to use U.S. 301 south of Fredericksburg as an alternate route, which will allow them to bypass the project. That road crosses the Potomac River and allows drivers to connect with the Capital Beltway in Maryland.

The widening project will remove a bottleneck at Newington that has longed plagued southbound commuters. Titunik said Prince William County commuters will also benefit from the new lanes.

“In Fairfax County, 95 will be all four lanes and will answer the mail for folks in the afternoon who are headed south and have all seen how crowded things have become,” said Titunik. “Also, the folks coming up from the south in Prince William County, right now we have three lanes on 95, as they cross over they will enter into four lanes.”

Each of the new lanes is expected to carry an additional 1,500 cars traveling at 60 mph every hour, he added.

While the bottleneck that currently plagues Newington will inevitably be pushed back to Occoquan, Titunik said the added capacity will allow southbound drivers bound for Newington, Lorton and Woodbridge to exit the road quicker. This will open up more capacity for drivers headed further south, he said.

Prince William County Supervisor Michael C. May-R Occoquan, said a comprehensive transportation plan, TransAction 2030, calls for widening the highway to the Stafford County line.

“We are pleased with the project because the additional lanes provide extra capacity on the road for Prince William commuters who are headed north. Our job now is to keep working with VDOT and to push for funding the extension of the forth lanes in Prince William County,” said May.

The first phase of the I-95 widening project, from mile post 160 to Fairfax County Parkway, is expected to be completed this fall. The next phase, from the parkway to just north of the Purple Heart Bridge over the Occoquan River, is scheduled to open next fall.

The third phase is extending the width of Purple Heart Bridge from right lanes to 10. The project is scheduled to be finished in 2011.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.