Starting Sunday, drivers can travel the Virginia side of the Beltway between Springfield and McLean on tolled express lanes, the biggest change to the highway around D.C. in over a decade.
It expands the road with two more lanes in each direction, extending existing express lanes that stopped at Tysons Corner. It adds links to the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Dulles Toll Road, increasing the reach of the 97-mile network of express lanes across Northern Virginia.
But plans to complete the express lane Beltway loop across the Potomac into Maryland are stalled. That’s why the project does not reach the American Legion Bridge, an infamously snarled span, and instead stops at the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), expressed frustration with that impasse at an event Friday announcing the extension opening. “We collectively urge Maryland to get on with it,” he said. He said convincing Maryland to finish “must be a top priority for the next administration.”
Years ago, the two states were aligned on a plan to wrap the Beltway in toll lanes, adding two in each direction to the existing eight-lane road. Virginia moved forward. Maryland got stuck in legal, financial and political disputes. Last month, regional officials delayed a vote over expanding the Beltway tolls from Springfield over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Prince George’s County, knowing there wasn’t enough support for the plan.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) has said he wants to rebuild and expand the American Legion Bridge, which is over 60 years old, but with public rather than private financing. His recent transportation budget says only that “work is continuing to secure grant funding.” His administration has not taken a position on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The Maryland Department of Transportation declined to comment.
Supporters of the toll roads praise them as an expedient way to build expensive infrastructure in a time of tight budgets. They point to data indicating they improve commutes in the free lanes and argue they are a form of congestion pricing that keeps demand from rising so high that gridlock reemerges. The express lanes are free for carpoolers and bus riders, and some of the profit goes toward transit. And Metro leaders have said they cannot afford to build out rail at all right now.
“People talk about express lanes, they don’t like them, they don’t want to pay for them — folks, this is an option,” Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller said at Friday’s event. “You don’t have to do it if you want to do it.” And, he added, the lanes were built “at no expense to Virginia taxpayers.” About 45,000 daily trips are taken on the toll lanes, operator Transurban said.
Opponents say the toll roads disrupt communities for a convenience most residents can’t afford, and sidestep accountability for high prices by handing control to private companies. Dynamic pricing on the lanes can lead to tolls that go into the hundreds of dollars. Environmental and anti-sprawl advocates say the most effective way to reduce the immiserating traffic around D.C. is to focus development around transit and improve that network, and that Virginia should have looked at ways to incentivize carpooling on existing lanes. The Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the south side of the Beltway was built to accommodate a Metro line, and opponents of adding toll lanes say they believe it will be difficult if not impossible to convert it back to a rail line.
Construction on the Beltway for the project, which began in 2022, won’t end until sometime next year. A new Georgetown Pike bridge remains incomplete, as does a paved walking and biking trail along the expressway.
The extension was originally scheduled to open Saturday morning, but was moved to Sunday due to inclement weather.
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