VIENNA, Va. — People crowded into a meeting on Monday night about plans to widen Interstate 66 outside the Beltway, and if you missed it there are two more meetings happening this week.
The plan is to have three regular lanes and two express toll lanes in each direction of I-66 between the Beltway and Route 15 in Haymarket. Only cars carrying three or more people, along with buses, would be able to ride free in the toll lanes.
“One of our goals is to move more people in the corridor, not just in single-occupant cars but across all modes,” said the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Susan Shaw at the meeting at Oakton High School.
More than 100 people attended.
Shaw says she’s been asked if the plan is final. For now, she says, “our pencils are down.”
But that will change as the plan advances. “As we move forward into the design phase, we are still looking for input,” says Shaw.
Outside the meeting, Donald Newton, a plumber, said he doesn’t like the idea of toll lanes on I-66: “I’m not happy about that at all. I’m a small business. It would affect me big-time.”
Ann Hanna says the plans already have some co-workers springing into action: “I do know for a fact that people are looking for other jobs in other locations out west, as opposed to coming and traveling into Fairfax using 66,” Hanna said.
VDOT will hold two more public information meetings this week.
Tuesday’s meeting will be held at VDOT’s Northern Virginia District Office, located at 4975 Alliance Dr. in Fairfax. If you can’t make it, you can watch a livestream of the meeting starting at 7 p.m. at Transform66.org.
On Wednesday, there’s another meeting planned at Piney Branch Elementary School, at 8301 Linton Hall Rd. in Bristow.
Both meetings run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
