Community Corner

495 Express Lanes' Transurban Moving HQ to Fairfax County

The operator of the 495 Express Lanes now calls Fairfax County home.

By William Callahan

Transurban, the investor and operator of the 495 Express Lanes and 95 Express Lanes, has moved its U.S. headquarters from New York City to Fairfax County, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Wednesday.

The company’s Fairfax County headquarters has 50 employees, with another 60 or so contractors who run the Express Lanes Operations Center near Edsall Road.

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The 495 Express Lanes, which opened in November 2012, created more than 16,000 jobs during their six-year construction process. The project generated almost $3.5 billion statewide, according to the governor’s office.

The 95 express lanes are still under construction and expected to open in 2015. The project is expected to create a total of 12,600 jobs.

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“Not only have these important transportation projects created jobs, they also improve our transportation infrastructure by providing faster travel for goods, employees and services, enabling Virginia businesses to work more efficiently and reducing the billions of dollars lost every year due to traffic congestion,” McDonnell said in a statement.

Jennifer Aument, Transurban’s general manager in North America, said McDonnell urged them to move to Virginia during the opening ceremony for the 495 Express Lanes in Tysons last year.

““We’re pleased to officially call Virginia our home base as we continue to partner with Virginia on innovative transportation solutions that keep Virginians moving,” Aument said in a statement.

The 495 Express lanes got off to a rough start initially. In the first six weeks of its operation, the lanes reportedly lost $11 million.

But things are looking up this year.

In the first quarter of 2013, the Virginia Department of Transportation and Transurban, which run the lanes in a public-private partnership, reported nearly $2.5 million in revenue and more than 26,000 average daily trips on weekdays. 

The speed limit on the Express Lanes was just raised to 65 mph.


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