Construction begins April 1 on the Virginia Department of Transportation’s $40 million project to construct auxiliary lanes and widen the shoulders on a seven-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Prince William County. The project is designed to ease several chokepoints, add capacity during emergencies, and reduce weaving and merging.
The inside and outside shoulders between Dumfries Road and the Prince William Parkway will be widened, both north and southbound, to 12 feet with full-depth pavement to make the shoulders suitable for traffic use during accidents, evacuation, enforcement and detours. New guardrail and lighting also will be added.
Auxiliary lanes will be constructed at three locations to create safer access and merging, particularly at the truck scale area. To create the auxiliary lane, crews will extend the acceleration and deceleration lanes between on- and off-ramps.
On I-95 South, auxiliary lanes will connect the Opitz Boulevard on-ramp with the Prince William Parkway off-ramp, as well as the truck rest area on-ramp with the off-ramp to Route 234.
On I-95 North, an auxiliary lane will connect the Dumfries Road on-ramp with the truck weigh station off-ramp.
Lane Construction is the contractor for the project which will be complete in August 2015. Most of the work will take place at night or behind barriers to minimize disruptions. All lane closures will be coordinated with the 95 Express Lanes project.
