American Legion Bridge Fix Needs Montgomery County's Help

By ETHAN LEVINE

Described as a traffic bottleneck on Interstate 495 between Maryland and Virginia, officials from both states, plus Montgomery County, may discuss a Virginia Department of Transportation study highlighting the need for changes to traffic patterns on the American Legion Bridge.

Fairfax County Board members approved a resolution on Tuesday seeking to find improvements for the bridge, and seeking the aid of Montgomery County, the commonwealth of Virginia and the state of Maryland in making those improvements, according to a report by WTOP.

This resolution comes in the aftermath of the VDOT study that found the American Legion Bridge was the worst traffic of the 11 Potomac River crossings examined. The bridge has the most daily commuters of any of the 11 crossings with 300,000 per day, and a car’s average speed crossing the bridge during afternoon rush hour is barely 20 miles an hour (the average speed during non-peak times is often more than 50 miles per hour).

The study recommends extending 495 Express Lanes across the bridge to the I-270 spur, and also suggests adding in a new river crossing in the coming years.