Adam Tuss, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – If the region has outgrown its roads, and there really is no room for expansion — as Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton says, then what’s the solution?
WTOP’s Director of Traffic and Transit Operations Jim Battagliese has some creative solution ideas.
“We can’t make roads like I-66 any bigger, so we should start looking at some of the other roads, like Route 50 in Virginia,” says Battagliese.
Battagliese wonders if there’s a way to turn a road like Route 50 into a limited access highway.
“Get rid of the traffic lights, put some on and off ramps in there and have some of the load from I-66 hop onto Route 50,” Battagliese says.
The same thing could be done on Route 7 in Virginia, he says.
Of course, those fixes take time and money — not an easy sell for residents or politicians in many places.
One thing Battagliese says is absolutely true about the region:
“There is nowhere to go. We really do need more roadways around here, but we don’t have the space to put them in.”
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