WASHINGTON — A Friday crash on the Capital Beltway in Annandale caused long delays and high tolls for the Interstate 495 Express Lanes, and the lanes’ operator pointed to the double-digit tolls as a signal to drivers to stay away.
The mishap occurred shortly before 5 p.m. in the Outer Loop Express Lanes near Braddock Road. Responders to the crash remained on scene until around 6 p.m. For about 1 1/2 hours, drivers were forced into a single file past the wreck. At times, traffic was brought to a stop.
The tolls were about $15 around the time the crash occurred, but they quickly increased through the 5 p.m. hour as traffic in the Express Lanes began to back up.
The tolls peaked at $26 shortly after 6 p.m., around the time both Express Lanes reopened. The price fell to below $13 by 7 p.m.
“As traffic increases on the 495 and 95 Express Lanes, the toll price will increase to try to manage that traffic flow and keep folks moving,” said Mike McGurk of Transurban, the operator of the 495 Express Lanes.
McGurk acknowledged, however, that sometimes that isn’t possible.
“Occasionally you’ll see an incident on the lanes that will — for some short period of time — block one of those travel lanes,” McGurk said. “The toll price is still going to react to that real-time traffic on the lanes and increase in order to prevent more drivers from getting on the lanes and making that congestion worse.”
It’s not clear how many people paid the $26 toll, McGurk said.
“The price was rising as the pace was slowing. The takeaway is that when the price goes up, be alert for the brake lights just ahead,” said WTOP’s Bob Marbourg.
Marbourg said that the high tolls are a red flag to drivers.
“It indicates either an incident ahead that has slowed the pace, or volume which has slowed the pace,” said Marbourg, who advised drivers to anticipate congestion and reconsider options if the toll is higher.
Although the wreck was physically confined to the Express Lanes, traffic in the main lanes of the Outer Loop was slow due to rubbernecking.
The highest toll ever posted for the 495 Express Lanes was $32.30 on June 8. The escalating tolls on that day were the result of a crash in the Express Lanes between Interstate 66 and Virginia Route 7, but McGurk said that fewer than 30 drivers elected to pay the highest toll on that day.
