The Mixing Bowl

USA / Virginia / Springfield /
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Everyday 430,000 vehicles pass through the Springfield Interchange, where I-95, 395 and 495 come together. During a two-year study, the interchange logged 179 accidents - making it the most dangerous spot on the 64-mile Capital Beltway. To improve traffic flow, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) rebuilt the interchange and made it safer for commuters and long-distance travelers.

Somehow this interchange has been given the moniker "the mixing bowl". Originally, this name applied to the network of roads merging with I-395 a few miles to the north around the Pentagon.

The project consists of building more than 50 bridges and widening I-95 to 24 lanes between the Beltway and Franconia Road.

www.springfieldinterchange.com
fairfaxunderground.com/wiki/Mixing_Bowl
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Interchange
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   38°46'47"N   77°10'27"W

Comments

  • This picture is old. It is probably 90+% complete now. For the most part it has made a tremendous improvement on the commute in this area, from "horrible" to "almost tolerable".
  • Before the interchange work, this area used to be called "the meat grinder."
  • it's done now -- finished on july 18, 2007; on time and within budget
  • That would be the revised $676M budget. Not the original $241M one. Nonetheless, it was a highly complex construction project done in and around and already tightly packed set of roads and ramps. Unless you had to commute through there on a daily basis, you just can't appreciate the complexity of the traffic flow dynamics of the old mixing bowl.
This article was last modified 3 years ago