Officials Warn of Weekend Construction on Capital Beltway

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fficials in the Washington, D.C., area are mounting a major campaign to divert traffic, including trucks, away from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on Interstate 495 this weekend because of what could be a huge traffic snarl, the Associated Press reported.

Delays could be as long as 90 minutes in traffic backups of 10 miles or more, officials said.

Officials are advising motorists and long-haul truckers to avoid the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 between the Springfield interchange in Virginia and Oxon Hill, Md., on the opposite side of the Potomac River past the Wilson Bridge, AP reported.

Northbound traffic headed toward New Jersey will be directed west on I-495 — onto the Inner Loop of the highway, which is also known as the Capital Beltway — or encouraged to bypass the Washington area altogether by taking U.S. Route 301 through Maryland.

Electronic signs warning of the detours will be posted as far south as the Virginia-North Carolina state line, AP said. Internet text messages have already been sent to American Trucking Association members, warning truckers to avoid the bottleneck this weekend.

The effort is aimed at diverting 50% to 75% of the traffic that would cross the bridge on a normal weekend, Ronaldo Nicholson, project manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation, told AP.

Barring forecast of a major storm or extremely hot weather, VDOT plans to reduce traffic flow from the normal three lanes to one from the U.S. Route 1 interchange to the bridge.

The work will also require closure of the north- and southbound ramps of Route 1 to the Beltway’s Outer Loop, traveling eastward, for most of the 57-hour period.

About 4,900 vehicles per hour typically use the bridge between 8 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday, when the weekend construction will take place, AP said.

Officials are hoping to direct at least 2,500 of those vehicles to alternate routes so that new ramps tying the existing road to temporary lanes can be paved.

National-Capital region motorists will be detoured to Telegraph Road, the Fairfax County Parkway or Lorton, Va., for access to U.S. Route 1. Those trying to reach the Oxon Hill area will be advised to use the 14th Street Bridge through Washington.