Mixing Bowl's New I-395 Ramp a Ray of Hope

When Woodbridge resident Kit Oliva first drove across the new Springfield interchange ramp, she was whisked away to a place where the highways somehow seem a little more glamorous.

"It didn't feel like Virginia," she said. "There were so many lanes. It was like 'Wow, I'm in California.' "

Oliva is a postal carrier, and she braves the Mixing Bowl daily. Her sister lives in Southern California -- a land of extravagant interchanges and famous freeways. Springfield's new ramp is a smooth ride, she said, with broad shoulders and breezy merging. Just like the ones in Los Angeles.

Similar accolades for the ramp -- which connects the northbound lanes of Interstate 395 to the inner loop of the Capital Beltway -- were flowing Friday morning at a gas station in Springfield a day after the structure opened. There was relief in that new span, drivers said -- minutes, hours, entire mornings that could be won back from one of the Mixing Bowl's worst trouble spots. With a usually bleak commute brightening a little, motorists were gushing.

"I love that ramp," Lawrence Hunt of Woodbridge said. The burly ex-Marine was waving his hands excitedly while his delivery truck idled nearby. Hunt, who has been driving through the interchange since 1987, said the new ramp was "sweet."

"It feels like a NASCAR track," he added. "Somebody's going to get a speeding ticket on that thing."

The notion that someone could speed through the Springfield interchange at rush hour is a new concept in a spot known for its mass of merges, exits and on-ramps. The $676 million, eight-year project aims to end the last-minute cutting and weaving that caused so many accidents and bottlenecks at the old junction by stretching the "bowl" over a longer area with better-spaced entries and exits.

By next year, when the project is expected to be completed, it will include 50 bridges and widen part of Interstate 95 to 24 lanes.

The ramp that opened Thursday was the last major structure in the project, but transportation officials were quick to caution there is still unmixing to be done.

"We're not completely untangled yet," said Joan Morris, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. "But this puts us into the homestretch for completing the entire interchange."

A ramp connecting the outer loop to I-95 south remains unfinished, as do a handful of other minor projects.

Ronald F. Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, said that the revamped interchange removes "artificial" choke points -- such as the old, looping ramp from I-395 to the Beltway -- that caused unnecessary jams.

But Kirby said that even when the project is complete, motorists should expect more construction in the area. Traffic is expected to increase, which will create the need for more capacity. Already, four additional, tolled Beltway lanes are planned to run between Springfield and just south of the American Legion Bridge.

"There's going to be a lot of spaghetti there when this thing is all done," he said.

But that is years away. A road test during Friday's morning rush indicated that the remade interchange was working as intended.

The highway south of the interchange was reliably crowded, with backups around the Fort Belvoir exit. But traffic shook loose after that. Baltimore-bound I-95 drivers were steered to the left, part of the interchange project's grand design to separate long-distance, interstate traffic from local feeder roads and the commuter crowd.

With I-95 traffic gone, two clearly marked choices remained: Continue straight on I-395 to the Pentagon and Washington or bear right for the Tysons Corner exit to the inner loop using the new ramp. For drivers who might have been disoriented by the exit a half-mile before its old location, a sign at the base of the ramp flashed "TYSONS CORNER."

The area at the base of the ramp may turn out to be a weakness in the new ramp's design, because vehicles merge onto the right side of I-395 from a local access road near the exit for Tysons. Those continuing on I-395 must cross traffic taking the new ramp, creating a tiny mix of its own. But traffic volume on a late August Friday was light, and the exchange went smoothly.

Traffic on the ramp seemed so sparse it was like passing through North Dakota -- a lane to every man, woman and trucker. The road banked up and to the right, rising to a towering view of Fairfax County and the inner loop below. Its descent was just as graceful, a worry-free merge onto a wide-open Beltway.

"It's amazing," said Springfield resident Saul Ochoa, who estimated that he passes through the interchange 25 times a week between his two jobs, one of which is driving a delivery van for an auto glass company.

Before, Ochoa would usually get stuck for 10 to 15 minutes trying to squeeze his van through a gnarl of trucks and cars. With the new ramp, it has taken him three minutes. That's a lot more time at home with the family, Ochoa said.

"They've done an excellent job," he said. "It's well-designed, and it's going to help a lot."

Springfield resident Kevin Hoisington said he hadn't driven on the new ramp yet but wasn't entirely pleased with the interchange's new layout. He said the reconfiguration would benefit from better signs south of the junction, and he commented that the left-hand exit for I-95 north was "counterintuitive" for drivers expecting to veer right in order to continue north, as it appears on some maps.

"I'm surprised it's not worse," he said.