Westbound I-66 is slow from Rosslyn to Falls Church. Meanwhile, northbound I-395 is jammed from Glebe Road to the 14th Street Bridge.
In addition to heavy traffic, we’ve also spotted packs of Rolling Thunder motorcyclists heading into town for the annual Memorial Day weekend gathering.
The two-car accident happened this morning on the on-ramp from eastbound Columbia Pike to northbound Washington Boulevard. No injuries were reported, though the ramp was shut down for awhile.
The on-ramp was mentioned in our Most Dangerous On-Ramps list in February for its lack of room for merging cars to get up to speed.
The lane closure lasted about 10 months longer than originally anticipated. The utility work was performed in preparation for VDOT’s Courthouse interchange project, which is expected to get underway this month.
A tipster says the jersey walls separating the two righthand lanes of westbound Route 50 from the newly-paved lefthand lane were removed during the day on Friday.
The noisy annual Memorial Day weekend tradition will kick off on Friday, when motorcyclists from around the country will start flocking to the D.C. area to boost awareness of American prisoners of war and service members who went missing in action.
The Rolling Thunder headquarters hotel is the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, so South Arlington residents who live near Route 1, Route 110 and I-395 should expect to hear a lot of revving engines over the weekend.
A number of road closures are planned for the annual Bike DC ride through the District and Arlington. The route, which starts at the Capitol, will take cyclists across the Roosevelt Bridge, up the GW Parkway and down to the Air Force Memorial, before returning to the District.
As a result, the following streets will be closed to vehicular traffic from about 7:00 to 11:00 a.m.
The agency says construction on the new bridge will begin this summer and will wrap up in fall 2012 — a bit later than originally anticipated. The entire 100-foot-long bridge deck will be replaced with pre-cast concrete panels, and will be 27 feet wider than the existing bridge. The extra width will be used to install a 10-foot wide sidewalk, a 17-foot wide shared-use path and a new northbound turn lane. There will also be new traffic signals, “decorative wrought-iron picket fencing” and LED lighting.
On Thursday, June 2, at 7:00 p.m., VDOT will hold a ‘pardon our dust’ meeting for community members at Thomas Jefferson Middle School (125 S. Old Glebe Road).
The Rosslyn stretch of Wilson Boulevard from N. Arlington Ridge Road to N. Oak Street is in the process of being repaved. Part of the repaving east of N. Lynn Street has already been completed. Much of the rest of the road has been milled, awaiting repaving.
The milled surface will make for rough driving until it can be covered with blacktop. The repaving is being done as part of Arlington’s summer street repair program, which seeks to repair “old, substandard streets.” N. Arlington Ridge Road is also being repaved as part of the program.
Update at 2:40 p.m. — Part of the front of the car was hanging over northbound lanes of Route 110, which were closed while a wrecking crew worked to hook the car up to a tow truck. The car has since been hauled away and all lanes have reopened. Damage is visible on the north side of the bridge.
A car is reported to have two wheels hanging over Route 110 after a single-vehicle crash on a bridge.
Taste of Arlington hits the streets of Ballston on Sunday and police are planning a series of street closures to accommodate the event.
Among the closures, as announced by Arlington County Police:
Update at 9:52 a.m. — Police are starting to reopen the bridge.
Arlington Police have shut down northbound I-395 at the 14th Street Bridge, apparently due to an accident in D.C.
(Update at 12:20 p.m.) An SUV ran off the road and crashed through an iron fence near the intersection of S. Manchester Street and Route 50 just after 10:30 this morning.
Firefighters had to rescue the driver of the SUV, who was trapped in the vehicle after the wreck. The driver was brought to a local hospital with unspecified injuries.
Construction on the new Route 50 / Courthouse Road interchange is set to begin this month.
The project, which is expected to wrap up in 2013, will result in major improvements to what is now a rather confusing and even dangerous series of on and off-ramps. In the meantime, however, drivers will have to put up with some minor headaches as the project forces the closure of some busy routes and ramps, starting later this year.
