WASGHINGTON — Crews will begin widening a 3 mile stretch of Interstate 66 from Route 29 in Gainesville, Va. to Route 15 in Haymarket Monday night. The work isn’t expected to impact either rush hours since most of the work will happen overnight.
Virginia Department of Transportation’s Jennifer McCord says, “We’re talking about mostly traffic impacts at night. We’re talking about overnight closures.”
After the work begins Monday, closures will occur Sunday through Thursday nights moving forward. The construction for this particular part of the project will last about two months.
McCord says one HOV lane and one regular lane will be added in both directions of the interstate.
“We have capacity issues there and it’ll be important to add those extra lanes there.”
VDOT Communications Manager Joan Morris says, “The first improvement will be adding a left turning lane on the westbound I-66 (exit) ramp to Route 15 where traffic backs up during the evening rush.”
That part of the project should be finished by the end of June.
The entire widening project is expected to wrap-up in August of 2016 and cost around $73.5 million. Once complete, McCord says there will be three regular lanes and one HOV, in both directions, stretching 25 miles from Interstate 495 to Route 15.
For more information about the project, visit virginiadot.org.
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