Motorists navigating the Springfield Interchange can expect to see improvements in traffic flow this month, as the two biggest changes in years are scheduled to take place by the end of May.
The 120-foot-high bridge from the inner loop of I-495 is scheduled to open on May 19. Within two days of that, a second ramp lane will open on the other side of the interchange for traffic traveling from the outer loop to I-95 south.
Steve Titunik, the Virginia Department of Transportation's Springfield Interchange information specialist, is following the latest moves, which are part of Phase IV on this seven-phase project.
"I think it will be better in all directions," Titunik said.
The bridge, known to those familiar with the project as "B610," will be accessed from the left-hand lanes on the inner loop coming from the Woodrow Wilson bridge. The night of Monday, May 10, the westbound lanes were shifted from the detoured lanes to the regular lanes, which abolished the gooseneck curve that occurred right before the I-95 south exit. Once the bridge opens, all the southbound traffic on the inner loop will take the bridge and travel over the current lane merge, for which the "mixing bowl" was unofficially named. Over a 3- or 4-mile area, four sets of signs will direct motorists to the bridge to limit the confusion, said Titunik.
When the bridge opens, however, only one lane on and off the bridge will be open, while work continues on the other lanes. The second lane will open to access the bridge in July, Titunik said, but only one lane will provide an exit off the bridge to I-95 south.
"In the beginning, there will only be one lane off the bridge while work is being done," Titunik said.
OUTER LOOP TRAFFIC, which now backs up to the Braddock Road exit during evening rush hour, will see some relief with an added lane. In addition, traffic from the outer loop will not mix with the traffic from the inner loop going south because the inner loop traffic will use the B610 bridge.
Springfield resident Kristin Spencer isn't intimidated by the height of the bridge, though she tries to avoid interchange altogether.
"I don't use the mixing bowl. I try to avoid it," Spencer said.
Wanda Fisher, another Springfield resident, avoids it as well.
"Luckily I don't have to take the Beltway that often," Fisher said.
THE LANE openings in May are what Titunik called a "substantial completion," which he compared to a new house that has finished all but the "punch list," or minor repairs. Last summer, B610 bridge was constructed using 50-ton steel beams, stopping traffic all night on certain nights in August and September. The opening of the bridge will not mean the end for Phase IV, though. Phase V will be completed before Phase IV, Titunik said.
"Phase V will be done by the end of June," he said.
Titunik said that the bridge will carry about 40 percent of the traffic from the inner loop. All that traffic will be funneled into one lane, which he doesn't think will be much of a problem since no lane changes will be needed to access I-95 south after leaving the bridge.
"It should be more straight, smooth flow," Titunik said.