A van caught fire on northbound I-395 near the Pentagon around 6:00 tonight. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze. So far, there are no reports of injuries.
Firefighters shut down at least one left-hand lane, but there did not appear to be any major slowdowns as a result of the fire.
Just as we were receiving notification of a road closure between Fern Street and Grant Street on South 23rd Street near Crystal City, a tipster sent us the photo above with this description:
Good morning — There’s some sort of water problem on 23rd St South near Crystal City, between Fern and Grant, closer to Fern. Water is out on at least that block (I live there and a neighbor has told me hers is out as well). It looks like this utility truck has fallen through the street surface, a sinkhole or something. That could be the cause — either the water main was broken, or it was shut off to make repairs. Picture attached, though it’s not the best angle.
As we reported earlier today, this has been a busy month for water main breaks in Arlington.
Update at 1:15 p.m. — A few Washington Gas employees arrived on scene around 12:30 p.m. to check for a possible gas line rupture. Based on the public works employee lighting up a cigarette about 15 minutes later, it would appear that they gave the all-clear.
As the photos show, this is a relatively minor situation. The public works truck is now parked safely away from the hole, and there’s no water flowing from the apparent water main break. No word yet on when the road may reopen.
On WTOP’s Ask the Governor program this morning, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was asked about the state law that allows vehicles with clean fuel license plates (like hybrids) to travel on HOV lanes without occupancy restrictions.
“Is there any point at which that will formally and permanently be canceled?” a caller asked the governor, adding that single-occupant hybrids “clog up” the HOV lanes during rush hour.
McDonnell, who signed a one-year extension of the law in March, noted that the law was “put in place in previous administrations… to create an incentive for using fuel-efficient cars.”
McDonnell said the exemption, which expires on June 30, 2011, will be examined as part of his administration’s transportation effort.
“The overall idea behind these… high occupancy lanes is to reduce congestion, and one person in a car doesn’t do that,” McDonnell said. “It’s part of one of the overall things that we’re looking at in the Department of Transportation in order to get people moving faster. Being able to have more people in one vehicle, or in rail or other modalities, is part of the solution.”
(Updated at 11:05 a.m.) There were major delays on westbound I-66 between George Mason Drive and East Falls Church this morning as police investigated a series of wrecks apparently caused by a airport shuttle van.
We’ve heard reports of at least six crashes caused by the van between the Roosevelt Bridge and Sycamore Street on I-66. At least two additional crashes have been reported outside of Arlington. We’re hearing that two drivers required medical treatment.
Police temporarily shut down the ramp from westbound I-66 to Sycamore Street to allow an ambulance to access one of the crash sites.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is now confirming that airport police have arrested the driver of a blue Super Shuttle van at Dulles Airport in connection with the crashes.
“Our officers located driver and the van in front of the main terminal at Dulles, and he was taken into custody,” said airport spokesperson Courtney Mickalonis. “We’re working with other police agencies to determine exactly what happened.”
Mickalonis said airport police were initially alerted by a motorist who was struck by the van on the Dulles Access Road. She added that police did not find any passengers inside the van. It’s not known whether passengers might have gotten out before police arrived.
No word on charges at this time, but we’re hearing that the driver spit on officers while being taken into custody.
Update at 3:30 p.m. — Virginia State Police have sent out an updated press release (after the jump). Note that VSP is only counting the incidents their troopers responded to, and we stand by our count of eight crashes.
Arlington residents are waking up to the winter’s first dusting of snow in the county. They’re also waking up to potentially slick streets.
Temperatures have been hovering around freezing, raising the possibility that roads wet from yesterday’s rains could freeze. Last night VDOT began treating bridges, ramps and other freeze-prone stretches of road with salt, as a precaution.
So far, however, it would seem that ice is not a factor in the morning commute. No significant accidents have been reported as of 7:30 this morning and there are currently no major delays on local highways.
Update at 12:35 p.m. — Another stop sign has been installed.
There is a stop sign missing on the on-ramp from Courthouse Road to eastbound Route 50, causing a serious traffic hazard.
Police are currently on scene directing traffic, according to police radio transmissions. Before police arrived, cars were heading straight through the T intersection, where Courthouse Road traffic heading onto Route 50 normally yields to eastbound Route 50 traffic exiting onto the ramp.
No word on how the stop sign went missing or whether it caused any accidents. A new stop sign is expected to be installed shortly.
I-66 is currently slow in both directions in the area of Glebe Road, near Ballston.
Traffic heading eastbound is facing delays due to some sort of road work that shut down one lane near Spout Run. That lane closure just cleared.
Traffic heading westbound is heavy all the way from Fairfax Drive to the construction zone at the Beltway.
It’s a slow go for commuters on Route 50 and Columbia Pike this morning. And it’s an even slower commute for those on I-395.
Nearly the entire length of northbound I-395 is slow, from the Beltway to the 14th Street Bridge. HOV commuters, however, have it relatively easy.
The Arlington stretch of Route 50 and Columbia Pike are both experiencing heavier-than usual traffic volume.
Update at 11:05 a.m. — We’re hearing that some traffic lights are coming back online in the area.
Update at 11:30 a.m. — Road closures are being lifted. Dominion spokesperson Le-Ha Anderson says power has been restored to most customers in Rosslyn.
“While we investigate the root cause of the outage, we are rerouting electricity to restore as many customers as possible,” Anderson said. “As of 11:01, we were able to get the lights back on for all but 123 customers.”
Update at 2:00 p.m. — Dominion estimates that service won’t be fully restored until midnight tonight, after underground repairs are completed. Buildings in the 1500 blocks of Clarendon and Wilson Boulevard are still without power, we’re told.
A blown underground transformer in the area of 1515 Clarendon Boulevard has caused traffic lights to go dark and about 1,000 Dominion customers to lose power in the Rosslyn area.
Traffic lights are reportedly out across most of North Lynn Street, and police are now directing traffic in the area. Officers have requested generators for the lights, saying it “could be hours” until power is restored.
A traffic light outage has also been reported at Wilson Boulevard and North Pierce Street, near the fire station, as well as other intersections between Rosslyn and Courthouse.
Police are in the process of shutting down Fort Myer Drive at Lee Highway, as well as most of Nash Street. Traffic coming across the Key Bridge into Arlington will have to head west on Lee Highway, get off at North Scott Street, and backtrack down Wilson Boulevard to get to Rosslyn.
There’s no reliable word yet on when power might be restored.
Commuters have wet, leaf-slicked roads to deal with this morning, but largely the drive on the highways isn’t much worse than on any other given weekday.
Traffic on I-66 is moving smoothly. I-395 is backed up, per usual, and is moving slowly approaching the 14th Street Bridge.
The biggest cause for concern this morning appears to be Route 27 near the Pentagon, which has slowed to a crawl heading northbound (on the western side of the Pentagon).
A Metrobus operator was among the unlucky drivers who did not heed warnings of stepped-up traffic enforcement in Rosslyn today.
Arlington police officers positioned themselves at the busy intersection of Wilson Boulevard and North Lynn Street during the morning traffic rush and the lunch time pedestrian rush, in an effort to catch people violating basic traffic safety laws. During the course of the morning rush hour alone, they handed out 33 citations to drivers and gave 50 verbal warnings to pedestrians and cyclists.
The enforcement was part of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s eighth annual Street Smart safety campaign, which officially launched today with a lunchtime press conference in Rosslyn.
“They key message here is: we’re not pointing the finger at the motorist, we’re not pointing the finger at the pedestrian, we’re not pointing the finger at the bicyclist… when you’re talking about prevention, we all have a responsibility,” said Arlington Police Chief Douglas Scott.
“Pedestrians, bicyclists and cars need to coexist and watch out for each other,” said Arlington County board member Mary Hynes, who told reporters that her own daughter was once struck and injured by a bus. (Clarification: Ms. Hynes’ daughter was struck by a bus in Europe. It was not a Metrobus. This article, which remains in its original form, did not mean to imply the type of bus involved in that incident.)
Scott said the police department will have stepped-up enforcement in the morning and evening rush hours throughout the course of the two-week campaign.
Among those nabbed during today’s lunch time enforcement was a Metrobus operator, who was issued a $91 ticket for making a right turn on to North Lynn Street from the center lane of northbound Wilson Boulevard. At one point, after the officer left to run his information, the bus operator slammed his window shut as television news cameras rolled.
Each year, a whopping 1,000 traffic citations are issued at just the Wilson Boulevard-Lynn Street intersection, according to police.
