Traffic

The penalties for drinking and driving or texting and driving will change Monday, July 1.

Currently, texting while driving is considered a secondary offense, meaning the offender must be stopped for another, separate offense in order to be charged for texting and driving. Under the new law, it will become a primary offense, allowing police to stop drivers suspected of texting or reading text messages while driving.

Several new lane closures are planned this weekend as part of the 95 Express Lanes Project on Interstates 95 and 395 in Northern Virginia.

The closures will impact the entire stretch of HOV lanes from the Washington, D.C. line to Va. 234 in Dumfries, from 11 p.m. Friday to 10 a.m. Satruday, and then again 11 p.m. Saturday until 10 a.m. Sunday.

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — A local State Delegate has made his case to sufficiently fund the widening of a portion U.S. 1 in Woodbridge.

Mark Dudenhefer, R-Stafford, Woodbridge, penned a letter to Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton to provide “sufficient funding” for widening the major thoroughfare from Featherstone Road to Mary’s Way, from a four-lane to a six-lane road. Prince William County transportation officials estimate that project will cost $53 million.

Get ready for some more lane closures as part of the 95 Express Lanes starting on Friday night, between Washington, D.C. and Va. 234 in Dumfries. The lane closures are expected to be in place until Sunday morning.

Virginia Megaprojects provided a list of the planned closures:

MANASSAS, Va. — Taxes are going up in Virginia on July 1 to pay for transportation improvements across the state.

Locally, elected officials on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, and its chairman Prince William County Supervisor Martin Nohe, narrowed a list of 47 proposed transportation projects down to 33 that, if they were to be built, would cost taxpayers an estimated $500 million.