Big changes in store for Tysons Corner travelers with future HOT lanes setup

For several years, Tysons Corner has been ground zero for the construction disruptions of the high-occupancy toll lanes project. By next holiday season, the shopping and office center will be the project’s target market.

Drivers caught in traffic during their 2011 holiday excursions might spend some of their idling moments looking around to see how the new transportation pattern could benefit them a year from now.

What’s HOT, what’s not

Advocates for the market-driven concepts embodied in the HOT lanes project say this zone of intensive activity in Tysons illustrates the way of the future in U.S. transportation: Figure out where travelers demand to go and find a financially feasible way of supplying them with options. Keep that basic market strategy of supply and demand in mind when evaluating the plan.

The HOT lanes project gives Tysons three interchanges with the Capital Beltway. That’s a greater concentration than anywhere else along the project’s 14 miles between Springfield and the Dulles Toll Road. The design reflects the public and private planners’ desire to serve a lot of traffic while keeping everyone moving safely.

From south to north, the HOT lanes interchanges will be at Route 7 (Leesburg Pike), Westpark Drive and Jones Branch Road.

Commuters have seen considerable work on this project at the Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road) interchange. A major phase was completed just before the holiday season began, when the Beltway’s inner loop was shifted, through lanes were restored on Route 123 below the Beltway and an inner loop ramp reopened.

All that concentrated activity might create the impression that Route 123 will have a HOT lanes interchange, but that’s not the case. Drivers who flow into the major tributaries of Tysons Boulevard and International Drive can still use Route 123 to join the Beltway. But project managers with Transurban, the company that will operate the new lanes, believe some of them will be drawn off to the new HOT lanes access points at Westpark Drive and Jones Branch Road.

That would open up a market for the toll lanes while reducing congestion from the interior roads to the Beltway/Route 123 interchange.

Three connections

These are the characteristics of the HOT lanes access points.

Route 7: This modification to an existing interchange is the southernmost access point at which carpoolers or toll payers in the new HOT lanes will connect with Tysons Corner. Drivers coming out of Tysons on Route 7 will be able to travel south in the HOT lanes but will not be able to travel north in them. Drivers traveling toward Tysons in the northbound HOT lanes will be able to exit onto Route 7, but drivers in the southbound HOT lanes will not be able to exit onto Route 7.

The HOT lanes ramps will connect with Route 7 via a traffic signal. Connections between the Beltway’s regular travel lanes and Route 7 remain.

Westpark Drive: This is a new access point for the Beltway in the middle of Tysons, near Route 123. The connection will be between the Beltway and the rebuilt Westpark bridge above Route 123. Drivers coming from Tysons Corner can travel north or south in the HOT lanes by using Westpark Drive. Drivers heading north or south in the HOT lanes can enter Tysons via Westpark Drive. Because this access point is in the middle, its users probably will include shoppers and office workers from both north and south of Route 123 in Tysons Corner.