Commuter Alert: I-95 Work Postponed Until Tuesday

During our online discussion this afternoon, several commuters asked what's up with the HOV lane schedule on I-395/95 in Virginia. Here's what's going on:

The Virginia Department of Transportation just announced that because of the rainy weather, it has postponed work originally scheduled for tonight on I-95, which would have affected the HOV lane schedule this evening. So everything is as usual tonight.

But on Tuesday night, under the new schedule, the HOV lanes on I-395/95 southbound now are scheduled to close early, at 8 p.m. They will be reversed to relief traffic congestion through a work zone on the northbound side, to the south of Springfield.

This is the revised schedule for Tuesday:

Two lanes of northbound I-95 near Lorton (exit 163) are scheduled to close from 9 p.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday while workers erect steel beams for the new Pohick Creek bridge, part of the I-95 widening project.

That will leave only one of the regular travel lanes open. So the Virginia Department of Transportation is going to use the HOV lanes to help drivers get around this northbound bottleneck.

Northbound drivers should enter the HOV lanes from I-95 north of Quantico and north of Dumfries, VDOT says. Traffic entering the highway from the Prince William Parkway, Dale Boulevard, Route 123 and Route 1 can reach the HOV lanes by separate ramps.Vehicles can re-enter I-95 northbound just past the work zone by using the exit to I-95, I-395 and I-495.

So southbound drivers will find conditions as usual tonight, but need to be aware that the HOV lanes will not be available to them as of 8 p.m. Tuesday because of this effort to relieve the congestion in the work zone on the northbound side.