Transurban has entered into a predevelopment agreement with Virginia to add 120 miles to existing I-95 express toll lanes as the company rides a traffic growth trend in its North American managed lane portfolio and eyes other U.S. markets.
The Australian toll road operator inked an expanded development framework agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation that allows it to assess the design and financing needs that would go into a binding proposal submission to VDOT for bidirectional express lanes. The proposal is six times larger than a previous proposal to VDOT.
"This is a first-of-its-kind project," said Baruch Feigenbaum, Reason Foundation's senior managing director of transportation policy. The proposal would add lanes and expand existing lanes that go only in one direction at certain times of the day and make them all bidirectional, adding a total of 120 lane miles.
"This doubles the entire corridor and extends it 10 miles" south through Fredericksburg and into Spotsylvania County, Feigenbaum said.
The right-of-way in northern Virginia is constrained by development, and Washington, D.C.-area congestion has been growing, he added. "The local counties were getting annoyed and there was a lot of pressure on the Virginia Department of Transportation and Transurban to make this work," Feigenbaum said. "Transurban has come up with a solution to squeeze these new lanes in."
The move would increase I-95 express lanes' capacity by 140%, Transurban said in a June 26 announcement. If approved, financing should be in place in 2029, the company said.
Managed lanes have evolved from a "boutique subsegment" to the fastest-growing sector in ground transportation due to their effectiveness in addressing congestion relief, Fitch Ratings said in a
Tracking with the larger U.S. managed lane sector, Transurban enjoyed strong growth in its North American market for the first half of its fiscal year, which began last July 1. Average daily traffic was up 3.6% in that time despite a federal government shutdown, the company said.
"Drivers are clearly seeing value in time savings and reliability, and with that, we're seeing traffic grow even outside of peak periods," Transurban CEO Michelle Jablko said in a first-half 2026 earnings call.
Virginia is a longtime leader in the P3 managed lane space. Several Southeast states have in recent years entered the sector, including, most recently,
Transurban's North American portfolio includes the I-95 express lanes, 395 express lanes, the Fredericksburg extension and the 495 express lanes' northern extension.
Transurban is one of three teams
Transurban recently put in an "expression of interest" in response to Maryland's Request for Interest for "innovative project delivery methods" for expedited delivery of the
"In terms of North America, we've got a whole lot of opportunity still in Virginia," Jablko said on the call. "I think we're well engaged on the bidirectional. There's other opportunities that are starting to emerge there, and we do those with our existing partners in Transurban Chesapeake. We're exploring a couple of other markets ... with Ferrovial," she said. "There will be more to say later in the year on those."
The company's full-year earnings will be released on August 13.
