The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the Build America Bureau would be providing an up to $1.05 billion low-interest loan to Capital Beltway Express, LLC to refinance an existing loan for construction of the Capital Beltway express lanes, part of the 495 NEXT Project.
The Build America Bureau provides communities with Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans (TIFIA) and other funding to help reduce the cost of infrastructure projects.
Currently, there are 14 miles of tolled express lanes on I-495 in Fairfax County, Virginia. The 495 NEXT project will extend the express lanes by 2.5 miles from the Dulles Access Road to the George Washington Memorial Parkway near the state line.
“This multimodal project will ease congestion, keep unwanted traffic out of residential neighborhoods, and connect to future express lanes at the American Legion Bridge, a notorious bottleneck,” said Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg. “The project also includes long-term annual transit investment from toll revenues and will reconnect communities with pedestrian and bike paths as well as two new overpasses.”
The 495 NEXT project is expected to be completed in December 2025 and will enhance safety while including investments into transit and new pedestrian and bicycle paths.
“This public-private partnership moves more people through the corridor and improves travel time reliability through dynamic tolling,” said Bureau Executive Director Morteza Farajian. “The reconstructed corridor will give people more affordable options including carpooling, using transit, driving in the free general purpose lanes and using the express lanes for a toll.”