HOT lane trees, plants transferred to area school yards

Falls-Church-based nonprofit Land and Waters Inc. partnered with HOT lane contractors Transurban and Fluor on May 17, as part of a project to help replant indigenous plant species at area schools, including Daniels Run Elementary School in Fairfax City.

The trees and other plants were removed from construction staging areas for the Capital Beltway high-occupancy toll lanes, also known as HOT lanes.

The clearing of about 5 acres of stubby trees and underbrush in late April from a VDOT-owned staging area along I-495 in McLean, however, caught both nearby residents and county supervisors off-guard. As a result, supervisors, who claimed receiving no prior notification of the site clearing work, began looking into increasing its oversight of VDOT construction projects, including the HOT lanes.