During the 2019 Virginia General Assembly Session, the Senate and House of Delegates approved similar resolutions (SJR 276 and HJR 581) requesting the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) study the 52 miles of the I-95 corridor between Exit 118 (Thornburg) in Spotsylvania County and Exit 170 (I-495/I-395) in Fairfax County along with potential financing options for improvements to the corridor. The Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment (OIPI), the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) jointly conducted this study resulting in the I-95 Corridor Improvement Plan (Plan).

The Secretary of Transportation and the CTB requested that the study area for the Plan be expanded to include all 179 miles of I-95 in Virginia between the North Carolina state line in Greensville County and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Alexandria as shown in Figure 2 on page 2 of the report. The corridor traverses twelve counties, six cities, and four VDOT construction districts: Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Hampton Roads. Also, this study includes the development of a corridor-wide operations plan and evaluation of two key parallel routes to I-95—U.S. 1 and U.S. 301—to identify strategies and improvements to more efficiently accommodate diversions of traffic, especially during major incidents on I-95.