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.
A power outage affected about 1,350 Dominion customers along Lee Highway this morning.
The outage created some dangerous conditions where traffic lights were dark or malfunctioning along Lee Highway. Police had to direct traffic at the intersection of Lee Highway and Spout Run.
Arlington’s Office of Emergency Management issued the following statement tonight regarding a water main break in Lyon Park.
Commuters should avoid the intersection of Pershing Drive and N. Barton Street due to a water main repair now underway. Pershing Drive between Wayne Street and N. Barton Street is one travel lane with flaggers. Access from Barton Street onto Pershing Drive is affected. The break occured today during the installation of a new 12-inch water main. One residential block of N. Barton Street from Pershing Drive to N. 9th Street and a small number of businesses in the 2200 block of N. Pershing Drive have been notified that they will remain without water while repairs are made into the evening.
Update at 3:00 p.m. — The driver of the van has been charged with reckless driving, according to Arlington County police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal. A passenger from the bus and the van driver were both taken to the hospital after the accident, Nosal said.
A minivan slammed into the back of an Arlington Transit (ART) bus at the intersection of N. Glebe Road and 4th Street, near Ballston, just after 11:30 this morning.
Update at 11:05 a.m. — All traffic is being diverted onto King Street and being re-routed back onto I-395 past the accident scene. Expect major backups.
As of 10:30 a.m., northbound I-395 was shut down at King Street due to an accident involving an overturned vehicle.
Police are on the scene of a deer found lying in the middle of I-66.
The deer was hit and killed by a vehicle near Sycamore Street, where I-66 was shut down yesterday morning due to multiple accidents caused by deer in the roadway.
A multi-vehicle accident has been reported in the northbound lanes of the GW Parkway near Lady Bird Johnson Park. Arlington County firefighters and paramedics are on the scene.
Initial reports suggest a jogger may have been struck by one of the accident vehicles. Two people are reported to be injured, one critically.
Several people were injured after a car ran off the GW Parkway and into a ravine, then caught fire.
The crash happened around 3:00 p.m., in the northbound lanes just after Memorial Bridge. As of 3:25 p.m., both lanes of the northbound GW Parkway were blocked by emergency vehicles near the crash site.
The construction cone slalom on Columbia Pike has converged into one relatively narrow, pock-marked chute of two-way traffic.
On one side of the Pike, two lanes are blocked by much-needed repaving work. On the other side, next to the still under-construction Penrose Square development, one lane is blocked by Dominion trucks that are preparing to replace an underground transformer that apparently blew this morning (a tipster reports hearing a large bang and seeing a flash in the area around 9:30 a.m.).
A dump truck reportedly hit a traffic light at the intersection of Army Navy Drive and South Hayes Street this afternoon.
The collision knocked the light from its pole, causing it to dangle precariously over the intersection by an electrical line. As of 1:30 p.m. a county light crew was working to repair the light as police directed traffic at the intersection. A backup quickly formed at the busy intersection, which also serves as a connector to I-395.
Today, around 10:00 a.m., a car spun out of control and hit a guardrail while heading around a bend on southbound I-395, just past Washington Boulevard. The driver was said to be conscious but groggy, and was evaluated by paramedics.
Last month, on a rainy day, an SUVcrashed into the same guardrail in the same location just minutes after police finished clearing a roll-over accident in (you guessed it) the same exact location.
Police are shutting down southbound Route 110 at the exit for Route 27, near the Pentagon, for a report of a person struck by a construction vehicle.
The person was initially reported to be trapped under a backhoe, but fire fighters on the scene have advised that the victim is in fact not trapped.
