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May 15, 2008 1:06 pm US/Eastern
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Dignitaries Dedicate Bridge Span
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. (AP) ―
The Washington region celebrated a milestone in the $2.5 billion Woodrow Wilson Bridge project in appropriate fashion -- by inadvertently creating a massive traffic jam.
Political bigwigs from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia crowded onto the new bridge Thursday to celebrate completion of the second and final span over the Potomac River. The project is designed to relieve a major bottleneck on the Interstate 95 corridor, one of the nation's busiest highways.
But as workers set up tents and raised giant American flags on the new span in preparation for the 11 a.m. ceremony, rubbernecking rush-hour commuters on the other span stopped to gawk, and backups stretched about 7 miles in Maryland. Angry truckers leaned on their horns and made obscene gestures during the ceremony.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine joked during their remarks that perhaps the honking horns came from drivers excited that the new span will soon open.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley noted drivers' frustration with gridlocked traffic. He said state and federal officials need to be willing to address major infrastructure needs or taxpayers will only get angrier.
"If you think they're honking now, think if we turned it over to Bear Stearns and (motorists) were paying $7 to cross the bridge," O'Malley said, referring to the strategy of using private entities to build new roads and pay for them with tolls rather than general tax revenue.
The Wilson Bridge has been a bottleneck for decades, as eight lanes on the heavily traveled Capital Beltway narrowed to six on the old span. The new twin-span bridge has 12 lanes, but only half will be available when the second span opens to motorists at the end of the month. (The first span opened in 2006.)
By the end of the year, authorities plan to have 10 lanes open -- five in each direction, with three local lanes and two "express lanes" separated by a concrete barrier.
Even then, though, relief will be incomplete. Work on the Telegraph Road exit on the Virginia side of the Beltway -- the final phase of the project -- will reduce the Beltway to three lanes in each direction until early 2013. Only then will the entire 7.5-mile corridor have five lanes in each direction.
"There will be some improvements" for motorists once the new span opens, and again when the spans increase from six lanes to 10, said Ronaldo "Nick" Nicholson, project manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation. "But until 2012, 2013, you will still have backups."
The bridge project has won several design awards, including one earlier this month dubbed the "Oscar of Civil Engineering" by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Jurors praised environmental aspects of the building process, management of a complex project involving multiple jurisdictions and "its keen sensitivity to travelers and local communities."
The new bridge spans are 20 feet higher than the old span, reducing the need to raise drawspans that allow ships to sail up the Potomac. Authorities estimate span openings will be reduced from 275 to 65 a year.
The bridge also has dedicated paths for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Lon Anderson, a spokesman and lobbyist for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said Thursday that completion of the span is a momentous occasion; a AAA survey a few years ago identified the Wilson Bridge as one of the nation's worst bottlenecks.
"This does away with one of the largest and most reliable bottlenecks," he said. "When people talk about Washington being one of the most traffic gridlocked regions in the nation, this is one of the major reasons."
As for the delays caused by the ceremony, Anderson said, "It's a shame. ... But given all the effort and the billions of dollars spent to make it a reality, it's important to take a moment and recognize the people who made it happen."
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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