Driving 95 south around the city, is it better to take the east or west half of the loop or does it matter? It will probably be late afternoon on a weekend. Thanks.

Hi Jacqueline. First DON'T GO THIS SATURDAY NIGHT as the "mixing bowl" where 495/95/395 meet south of DC at Springfield will be closed. I have found the east 95 side marginally quicker with slightly less chances for backups. The Woodrow Wilson bridge crossing should be fine on a weekend afternoon.

Have a safe drive.

If you're coming from the North, you want to take 495 East, which covers a shorter distance than going the other way. Traffic wise it doesn't matter, especially on a weekend. But heed the previous note about the mixing bowl tomorrow night.

Thanks so much. I really appreciate the heads-up. Local folks know SO much more than the computer maps sites!

actually the fastest way is to take 295 which cuts off east 495.

the Mixing bowl is closing ramps not the actual roads and it they are being closed from 8PM to 10Am. So if hit the DC beltway by 6 PM should be no problem.

Do you have no choice other than to take 95? Where are you starting from and where are you trying to end up?

If you are coming from anywhere further north than the Maryland suburbs (e.g., Baltimore) and going to a place further south than Quantico/Stafford, seriously consider I-97 to 301 and crossing the Potomac south of La Plata (on the "Nice" bridge to Dahlgren/Fredericksburg. Even if you are headed to some place north of Fredericksburg, you may not lose that much time doing this and backtracking -- ESP. if the "mixing bowl" is closed and they are routing traffic to/through US Rte. 1 (which will be a zoo).

Even if you are coming from the Md. suburbs, would suggest you consider going east and getting off the Beltway at exit ?7? taking Rt. 5 South to meet 301 and

Let me try again, this time making a little more sense:

Do you have no choice other than to take 95? Where are you starting from and where are you trying to end up?

If you are coming from anywhere further north than the Maryland suburbs (e.g., Baltimore) and going to a place further south than Quantico/Stafford, seriously consider I-97 to 301 and crossing the Potomac south of La Plata (on the "Nice" bridge to Dahlgren/Fredericksburg. Even if you are headed to some place north of Fredericksburg, you may not lose that much time doing this and backtracking -- ESP. if the "mixing bowl" is closed and they are routing traffic to/through US Rte. 1 (which will be a zoo).

If you are coming from the Md. suburbs, would suggest you consider going east and getting off the Beltway at exit ?7? taking Rt. 5 South to meet 301, and then follow instrux requot;Nice" bridge.

If you are trying to get to anywhere west of 95 but north of the Quantico area, you probably should get out a map and try to figure a non-95 based way to do it, but be aware that to cross the Potomac on anywhere northwest of the Beltway, your choice is a quaint but poky ferry near Poolesville or the Point of Rocks bridge on Rt. 15, which is a VERY long way north of DC.

Let us know what works.

As ststed above, ramps will be closed. There will be a detour that VDOT estimates will cause a 45 minute . Based on that, plan on a two hour delay.

If you are heading south, use 301 to get you back on I95 south of Fredericksburg.

Cassandra gave you very good advice - anytime you're coming around DC - try to avoid taking the Washington beltway and heading down 95 from Springfield to Richmond is no pleasure either. You can do much better taking 301 across the Potomac and hooking up with Rchmond's 295 further south. It works for us and we use it at least 6 times a year.

There is also a Redskin game tomorrow night to add to the traffic problem.

yes the Redskins game is at 8pm with heavy traffic before/after in the area of the beltway. Fedex field is at exits 17, 14 off beltway loop in Landover. Hrmmm, I dont think the lane detours in the springfield will affect southbound traffic at all. im not 100% sure but its only one direction and im sure its northbound that will be detoured.

VDOT plans to start lane closings and mergings at about 6PM. The detour will be until 8 PM Sunday.

Thanks to everyone. We will be traveling in 10 days. We're actually driving from Boston to Naples, FL. I have gotten routes from several websites as well as AAA. Obviously, we will be doing 95 all the way but the various sources give differing opinions about the best way around DC from 95 north to south. We are planning to drive Boston to the Richmond area or so the first day. We are flexible about our start date. Would a weekend or a weekday better? We will probably hit DC mid to late afternoon.

All the trash trucks from NYC take the clockwise route, i.e. I95 across Wilson Bridge. Weekend better than weekday, and later would be better than mid-afternoon.

The work last weekend got postponed because of the weather, so they are trying again. I thought the detour only applied to northbound 95.

Oh, look here: http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/

It's 8PM Aug 23 to 10AM Sunday, northbound on 95/395 and west from the mixing bowl towards Tyson's.