Lane, the U.S. subsidiary of the Webuild Group, has been selected to design and build the 495 Express Lanes Northern Extension (495 NEXT) in Virginia, a $441-million (€380 million) project that will extend the I-495 Express Lanes to reduce congestion and improve safety along the I-495 in the Washington, D.C. area, one of the most congested corridors in the United States. The contract brings to €10.6 billion the total value of new orders that Webuild has acquired, is in the process of finalizing, or for which it has become the preferred bidder so far this year. The figure does not include the €13-billion contract to build a high-speed railway in Texas.

Commissioned as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) by Transurban for the Virginia Department of Transportation, the 495 NEXT will connect to the future I-495 (Capital Beltway) in Maryland to enhance multimodal mobility and connectivity in the area, including an expansion of the American Legion Bridge between Virginia and Maryland to accommodate the travel needs of a growing population in the Washington, D.C. area. Transurban is a global leader in toll-road management with a strong presence in Australia and North America.

The contract, fully owned by Lane, further consolidates its position as a leading contractor in sustainable mobility in the U.S. market, the largest for Webuild by revenue outside Italy where the government has proposed a massive investment plan for rail, roads, bridges and other transport infrastructure. The contract also follows the recent signing by Webuild and Lane of a final agreement to build the first true high-speed railway in the country between Dallas and Houston, bringing fast, safe and environmentally friendly travel.

The 495 NEXT project will have Lane extend the express lanes for 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) from south of Old Dominion Drive northward to the George Washington Memorial Parkway, adding two High Occupancy Travel (HOT) lanes in each direction that will cut travel times by 24 minutes during peak commute times. The project’s aim is to provide more consistent, reliable, and predictable travel times. By also creating incentives for buses, carpools, and other means of transport, the project is expected to help move 2,500 more people per hour in both directions combined through the busy I-495 corridor. Work is to start early 2022, and be completed in 2025. 

As one of the top U.S. road builders, Lane’s work stretches across the country. Its current projects include the I-10 Corridor Express Lanes in California, $1-billion worth of major interstate work in North Carolina, and a bascule drawbridge in New York. It is backed by Webuild with more than a century of experience and a track record of more than 80,000 kilometres of roads and highways spanning the globe.