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Jasper, I dont think that's the ONLY way to get a river crossing. I think adding another 30,000 users daily through an expansion to Centreville will finally exacerbate the rising bottleneck at Rosslyn. There is no point in expanding this, without having the proper foundation in place at the river to handle these new users, otherwise you are trading one form of traffic for another.

Like I said, funding sources should be analyzed today for the purpose of less turmoil in 2020.

I would also suggest to create a path that makes the most economic incentive as well, which is why I suggest connecting Tysons to Bethesda via a bridge and then tunnel down Goldsboro. Add a station at Langley to get federal funding for the project (and to address a large federal traffic demand).

Environmental groups have said no new bridges west of 495 and short of point of rocks... they never opposed inside the beltway. This would split Bethesda road users, which constitute approximately 30,000 river crossings a day, from 495 to 270 users. The right of way is available along Goldsboro for 2 more road lanes. The tunnel would be a hard sell, as we have found in this era of cost is everything.

End result

1) Orange Line will effectively be split in 2, Orange Line to Arlington and Orange Line bypass to bethesda/DC (which will remove a large portion of users west of Arlington to the new route). Arlington users will get a tunnel that doesnt carry as many orange line passengers outside of Arlington.

2) Tysons and Bethesda, the states two fastest growing economic hubs will be directly linked with road and metro expanded capacity

3) Maryland will gain access to Dulles Airport via metro.

4) CIA can expand with less traffic impact to GW Parkway/123.

by Tysons Engineer on Jun 25, 2012 4:26 pm • link • report