Beltway traffic is always a gamble when approaching the seemingly permanent construction zone that is the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and summer Friday getaways are probably the worst. Now, however, the Virginia Department of Transportation (V-DOT) is going to try something new to untie the the traffic knots. V-DOT is erecting new speed limit signs with digital readouts that can be altered in keeping with current conditions. Traffic engineers will be able to change the limits, higher or lower, based on the congestion and the construction.

Wilson Bridge project spokesman John Undeland says that "by regulating the speed we actually get a lot more vehicles through and a lot more safely."

With the new signs in place, the hope is that traffic will be both safer and more efficient. The  current speed limits will be based on information collected with cameras and road sensors.

Undeland add, "So the speed limit may be 55 at the Springfield interchange, [and] it'll go down to 50, 45 and so forth." 

Plans are already in place to boost enforcement in the area to make sure drivers comply with the posted speed limits. 

The project is expected to be up and running just over a month from now. At that time it will largely be used to deal with lane closures around Telegraph Road at night. If the signs work, V-DOT will expand the times and locations where they are used

Officials at V-DOT offer the following metaphor for the traffic problems and the way that the variable speed limits will address them:  if you pour a bag of rice all at once into a funnel, it clogs and stops the flow. If you pour the rice at a measured pace, no clogs. 

V-DOT believes that the variable speed limit, which organizes cars as if they were grains of rice, will have the same affect.