Years of lane closures start Monday on the Arlington Memorial Bridge

WASHINGTON — If you use the Arlington Memorial Bridge, you should plan now for major changes that will start this week and continue for years.

By 4 a.m. Monday, the National Park Service said, all traffic on the bridge shifted to what are usually the outbound lanes. (See a video illustrating the detours on the park service site.)

There will always be one lane heading inbound, one lane heading outbound, and one reversible lane.

“Monday through Friday that reversible lane will run eastbound into D.C. from 4 a.m. until noon, and westbound toward Virginia from noon through the overnight hours until 4 a.m.,” said the park service’s Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles.

On weekends and federal holidays, expect two inbound lanes to be open at all times.

“But drivers should watch the overhead signals on the bridge to know which lanes are open for travel in their direction,” Anzelmo-Sarles said.

Traffic will be monitored, and changes to the reversible-lane schedule could be made if needed to improve traffic flow.

According to the park service, delays are expected as drivers adjust during the first week or two of the project.

Once work is finished on one side of the bridge, the whole process will start over on the other.

The project is going to be a long one, with work expected to continue until sometime in 2021.

See another park service video summarizing the project here.