VA Route 267:

Dulles Toll Road

Omer L. Hirst - Adelard L. Brault Expressway

About VA Route 267 | Toll Information | HOV Information | Exit List | Web Links | Sources

 

About VA Route 267:

The Dulles Toll Road is a 14 mile long limited access highway that parallels the Dulles Airport Access Road.  The Dulles Toll Road runs from the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) west to the Dulles Greenway which begins  just west of VA 28.  A non-toll section of the highway extends east from the Beltway to Chain Bridge Road (VA 123).  East of VA 123, the highway rejoins the Dulles Access Highway which runs east to Interstate 66 in Falls Church.  The Dulles Toll Road is named for Omer L. Hirst and Adelard L. Brault, the Virginia Assemblymen who pushed for the construction of the highway.

Early Planning and Studies

The Dulles Airport Access Road opened in 1961 along with Dulles International Airport.  As traffic increased with the development of the western parts of Fairfax County, especially in Reston and Herndon, local commuters began making the trip out to Dulles Airport on the Access Highway and back towards Washington.  They then would exit the Access Highway at their destination as the Access Highway had no westbound exits, only entrances.  This was and still is illegal to do with conducting business at Dulles Airport itself.  Fairfax County officials had long asked the federal government to allow local commuters to legally use the Dulles Access Highway as a local commuter route.

In 1973, after repeated denials by federal officials to use the Access Road as a commuter route, VDOT began to study a parallel highway along the Dulles Airport Access Road for local and commuter traffic.  The study proposed that the Dulles Toll Road have two eastbound and two westbound lanes.  Exit and entrance ramps were to be built at the following locations:

Construction on the $11 million highway was expected to begin in late 1975.  The highway would be funded through a toll authority that would sell state revenue bonds.  Tolls would then be levied to pay off the bonds.

By 1974, the Virginia Assembly approved the use of state revenue bonds to pay for the Dulles Toll Road.  The proposed tolls were to be up to 35 cents per trip for thirty years.  Toll booths would be located:

In 1974, there was also discussion about whether or not the construction of the Dulles Toll Road should be linked to the completion of Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway.  Those wanting to link the construction of the two roads saw them as one "system" since the Dulles Toll Road and the Dulles Airport Access Road would combine and merge with proposed Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway.

A Second Study

Between 1974 and 1978, no construction was completed on the Dulles Toll Road.  In 1978, a new study was begun to build the Dulles Toll Road.  The goals of the Dulles Toll Road in this study were to relieve congestion on local roads such as Leesburg Pike (VA 7) and to open approximately 2,000 acres of land near Dulles Airport that were planned for commercial and industrial uses.  By November 1978, the study found that building the Dulles Toll Road was financially feasible.  A toll of 50 cents was proposed for the longest trip along the road with lesser tolls for shorter trips.  The cost of the road was estimated at $57 million.  The roadway would be two lanes in each direction and interchanges would be built at the following locations:

Approval and Construction

On December 7, 1978, the Virginia Highway Commission formally approved the concept of the Dulles Toll Road.  After the decision, public hearings on the proposed road were scheduled.

As public hearings on the Dulles Toll Road progress, two main points of opposition developed regarding the proposed road.  The first was the fact that the new road would pass very close to the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center.  The US Park Service expressed concerns that noise from the roadway could disrupt performances at the arts center.  Residents of Odricks Corner also joined the opposition of the proposed toll road.  Odricks Corner is a historically black enclave located at the corner of Spring Hill and Lewinsville Roads north of Tysons Corner.  Residents feared that the interchange at Spring Hill Road would destroy their homes and neighborhood.  Specifically, they asked that ramps to and from Spring Hill Road only be built on the south side of the new toll road.

In early 1982, the final environmental impact statement for the new Dulles Toll Road was approved.  The plans outlined in the environmental impact statement were essentially the same those  described in the 1978 study.  There were two differences.  The first was that the only toll plaza to be built would be between Leesburg Pike (VA 7) and Spring Hill Road (VA 684) near Tysons Corner.  The second was that ramps to and from Trap Road (VA 676) serving Wolf Trap would connect to the Dulles Toll Road and would be toll free.  All other interchanges would be served by barrier tolls on the ramps themselves.  The noise concerns at Wolf Trap would be addressed by depressing the roadway closest to the performance center and building a large retaining and sound barrier as the road passed the site.  It should be noted that a second toll plaza was built for eastbound traffic between VA 28 Sully Road and VA 657 Centreville Road.

On July 26, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the construction of the Dulles Toll Road.  The approval was contingent upon sound barriers being built near Wolf Trap and near several residential neighborhoods along the path of the roadway.  Subsequently, on December 1, 1982, the state of Virginia sold $57 million of revenue bonds to finance the construction of the Dulles Toll Road.  Construction on the Dulles Toll Road began in January 1983.  It was expected that the new road would be complete in October 1984.

Grand Opening

On October 1, 1984 at 7 PM, the Dulles Toll Road opened to traffic.  Then Governor Charles Robb was the first person to drop his toll in one of the automated toll booths along the highway.  Tolls at opening were 25 to 85 cents depending on distance traveled.  Although construction crews worked overtime to get the road open by October 1st, it was not completely done.  Some shoulders were still paved with gravel and ramps were still awaiting their final coarse of asphalt.  Additionally, many of the toll booths were not fully complete.  Temporary toll booths were in place.  Lastly landscaping and sound walls along the route were still not complete.   The toll booths were expected to be complete in November 1984 and the final paving to be done by December 1984.  All work, including the landscaping and sound walls, was expected to be complete by May 1985.  Early estimated showed that about 26,000 vehicles per day used the Dulles Toll Road in its first weeks.  Officials expect that up to 40,000 vehicles per day will use the road by the end of the first year of the road's operation.

By October 1985, after one year of operation, the Dulles Toll Road was carrying as much traffic as studies had predicted the road would carry in 1990.  Traffic clogged the road and led to rush hour delays.  In the first year of operation, the toll road generated enough income to produce a surplus.  The surplus amount was used to pay off old debt.  The original bonds that were sold to build the toll road were written without an improvement fund because planners underestimated the use of the new highway.  By the end of 1985, VDOT had hired a consultant to study widening the Dulles Toll Road.

The First Widening Project and an HOV Revolt

In August 1989, the Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a $36.9 million plan to add an additional lane to the Dulles Toll Road, establish a car pool lane, widen eight overpasses and to install a state of the art toll collection system that avoids the use of cash.  Construction was to began in the fall of 1989 and take about two years to complete.

As construction continued on the widening project, officials were already suggesting that the toll road be expanded to four lanes in each direction and car pool lanes be added.  On August 16, 1990, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved car pool lanes on the Dulles Toll Road.  They also approved using the shoulder as an additional travel lane during rush hour.  The car pool lanes and the shoulder use plan were to be implemented no later than six months after construction wrapped up on the widening project.

In October 1991, completed portions of the widening project opened for use by all vehicles.  When the widening project was complete in December 1991, one lane of the three would be restricted to car pools.  At the time surveys of local commuters showed that seven of ten drivers were not in favor of HOV Lanes.  Further, because VDOT opened the new lanes to all drivers prior to enacting HOV restrictions, many drivers felt they were being given something and then having it taken away from them.  Despite protests from drivers, state and local representatives, in August 1992, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved the implementation of car pools lanes on the Dulles Toll Road stating on September 1, 1992.  By the end of September 1992, congestion on the Dulles Toll Road was worse than ever, congestion on parallel routes had increased and accidents on the toll road increased due to people jumping in and out of the car pool lane to avoid congestion.  Amid growing discontent over the HOV Lanes, Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder suspended HOV restrictions on the Dulles Toll Road in early October 1992, just one month after the restrictions took effect.  

With the removal of the HOV Lane, officials began to look at other ways to reduce congestion along the road including opening the Dulles Airport Access Road to carpools.  The Federal Aviation Administration, owner of the Dulles Airport Access Road, continued to deny the use of the road to non-airport traffic.  In July 1993, a proposal to increase tolls by 10 cents to cover a fourth lane for carpools was approved.  The toll increase would fund $10 million of the expected $46 million cost of the fourth lane.  The remainder would be paid for with a bond issue.  Construction of the fourth lane would begin in 1996.  However, in December 1993, local officials recommended to the Commonwealth Transportation Board to extend tolls on the road until 2016 to pay for the new carpool lane.  In March 1995, Virginia Governor George Allen signed a bill that would allow for the fourth lane to be added to the Dulles Toll Road.  The new lane would be for car pool users.  No toll increase would be used to fund the project.  Construction of the new lane was expected to be completed by 1998.

Automated Tolling

Another improvement went into place on the Dulles Toll Road in April 1996.  The new system which was called Fastoll, is the precursor to Virginia Smartag which is now branded E-ZPass.  The system uses electronic transponders attached to the windshield of the vehicle to automatically deduct tolls from a user's account.  The new automated toll system was expected to double the amount of cars that could handled at the toll booths along the road by using dedicated lanes for the Fastoll system.  By the end of 1996, about 33,500 transponders were in use with 500 more being added daily.  About 20 percent of transactions along the toll road were by Fastoll.

Fourth Lane Widening, Ownership Change

In May 1996, construction began on adding the fourth lane for car pool use to the Dulles Toll Road.  The new lanes were expected to be completed in 1999.  On December 15, 1998, the new car pool lane on the Dulles Toll Road opened ahead of schedule, but way over budget.  The project cost $70 million, almost double the original cost estimate.  Car pools with two or more people are able to use the lanes.  The new car pool lane did not cause gridlock in the general purpose lanes, prompting none of the outrage and protests that occurred in 1992.

In 2007, ownership of the Dulles Toll Road was transferred from the state of Virginia to the Washington DC Area Airports Authority.  Along with the transfer in ownership came a toll increase.  The ownership change and the toll increase are both aimed at building a Metrorail extension to Dulles Airport and eastern Loudoun County.

Success

The Dulles Toll Road corridor continues to be an important part of the regional transportation system.  With its companion, the Dulles Greenway, the Dulles Toll Road provides an express route from Leesburg to the Capital Beltway and Interstate 66.  The road carries thousands of commuters, easing their daily commute, and has opened hundreds of acres of land to commercial, industrial and residential development, increasing tax revenues and investment in local communities.

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Toll Information:

Toll information for the Dulles Toll Road can be obtained by conacting the toll road by mail, telephone or E-mail:

Dulles Toll Road
P.O. Box 9430
McLean, Virginia 22102

Telephone: 703-383-2702 (24 hours a day)

E: Mail: dtr@vdot.state.va.us

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HOV Information:

The HOV Lane on the Dulles Toll Road is restricted to vehicles with two or more persons during the following hours:
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Exit List:

Exit Number Route that Crosses VA 267 Dulles Toll Road Exit Notes
19 VA 123 Dolley Madison Boulevard Exit here for McLean.
18 I-495 Capital Beltway Exit here for Beltway destinations.
17 VA 684 Spring Hill Road Exit here for Tysons Corner.
TOLL PLAZA - STOP PAY TOLL
16 VA 7 Leesburg Pike Exit here for Tysons Corner.
15 VA 676 Trap Road Wolf Trap traffic ONLY.
14 VA 674 Hunter Mill Road Exit here for Reston and Oakton.
13 VA 828 Wiehle Avenue Exit here for Reston.
12 VA 602 Reston Parkway Exit here for Reston.
11 VA 7100 Fairfax County Parkway Exit here for Herndon and Fairfax.
10 VA 657 Centreville Road Exit here for Herndon.
EASTBOUND ONLY - TOLL PLAZA - STOP PAY TOLL
9 VA 28 Sully Road Exit here for Sterling and Centreville.
Roadway continues as VA 267 Dulles Greenway.

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Web Links:
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Sources:


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Last Update: 3/15/08