Subway Official Advises Caution on Dulles Toll Road

Caution is the watchword for drivers along the Dulles Toll Road, stressed a spokesperson for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail project after 13 people were injured recently in commuter bus crash. The Dulles Corridor Metrorail project includes construction of the new Silver Line subway from Falls Church to Reston.

"The barriers are tight, close to the shoulder ... Just be really careful using that highway to and from the airport," Marcia McAllister, the project's communications manager, told a recent meeting of the Transportation Committee of the McLean Citizens Association. "It is believed the commuter bus' lug nuts may have touched the concrete retaining wall and that may have played a part in the accident,"  she said. 

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, she told the committee.

The committee also received an update on major ongoing transportation projects affecting McLean:

• Beginning in May, traffic lanes on I-495 (the Capital Beltway)  will be shifted onto new outside lanes so construction can begin on interior HOT lanes. The lane shifts will continue until next year. Phased shifts will occur along stretches of I-495 from Braddock Road to Route 7, north- and southbound.  The dry spring has helped keep the project moving on schedule, said Jeff Wagner, public information communications manager for Fluor-Lane, the company building these new toll lanes along the Beltway. "Overall, we're 65 percent complete," on the HOT lanes, he said.
• The new W&OD trail bridge is complete. The utilities are now being moved from the old bridge to the new bridge. The bridge should be open to the public by the week of  May 27, he said.
• The Route 123 connection to the Dulles Toll Road has been delayed until the middle of July after significant problems were encountered with milling and grading, McAllister said.