Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-24
Am Other STATED and r.
The Highway Program.

Capt Herbert c. Whitehurst, the Dis
trict's efficient highway engineer, has
done a good job in outlining in ad-
vance street repair and construction
program for the next five years and
work TO be done in the next decade in
bridge replacement Allowing for the
minor changes that unexpected devel-
opments may bring about, there is no
reason why the Commissioners and
Congress should not commit themselves
formally to such program and follow
1t through. 1t presents the advantages
Of co-ordinating In advance the con-
struction work Of the various utilities
and it sheds light on the demands for
revenue that highway building and
bridge replacement will entail during
the next few years. II the total ex-
penditure proposed over a period of five
years for streets and ten years for
bridges appears large, the $27, 500 900
estimated by Capt. Whitehurst is prob
ably less than what otherwise would be
spent without the economies that usu-
ally accompany well planned programs.
Under the program mapped by Capt.
Whitehurst the District would replace
six of its ageing bridges with new struc-
lures during the next ten years, these
being, In the order named, the Klingle
Bridge, the Benning Bridge over the
Eastern Branch, the p Street Bridge,
the Calvert Street Bridge, Chain Bridge
and the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge.
The last two projects would be under
taken some time in 1887 and 1884 and
In connection with the Chain Bridge
the cost of which Virginia undoubtedly
will share-plans now in mind contem-
plate raising its level to the proposed
riverside drive that some day will skirt
the BLUFFS along the Canal to the Dis
trict line and proceed north along the
Maryland side Of the river to Great
Falls. OF the bridges to be replaced,
Connecticut avenue, has already re-
eeived appropriations to pay for the
nrst years work.
Another interesting feature Of the
program lies In the proposed work for
elimination of the remaining grade
crossings. and in the next I'VE years,
beginning with the year 1882. for which
Congress will appropriate in the COM
ing short session, Capt. Whitehurst
plans 10 wipe out the Michigan avenue,
Eastern avenue, New Hampshire ave-
nue. and the Varnum street or Kansas
avenue. crossings. AS Congress has
slready approved the principle of
steady grade crossing elimination, it is
to be hoped that the necessary appro-
priationS will be forthcoming without
the undue delay that has characterized
this feature Of District appropriations
In the past. The District long since
passed the time when it could afford
TO put up with the menace of open
grade crossings.
The program contemplates 8 separa-
lion Of the grades Of East Potomac
drive and Fourteenth street, and sug-
gests that this work begin in the fiscal
year 1888. Such project has become
necessary. Any one familiar with the
hopeless tangle that now results near
the Bureau of Engraving when High
way Bridge traf1e meets Hams Point
traffic realizes that radical treatment
is the only thing to prevent congestion
sure TO increase within the next few
years. The plan, as understood from
the program, would be to separate the
two lanes of trafic by an underpass
carrying west-bound Hams Point traf-
nc beneath Fourteenth street. The
completion OF the Memorial Bridge
may divert much trafic from Four
tenth street and mitigate the neees-
sity for the underpass as early as 1898.
But 1t is a future step that must be
taken. and 1888 may be none too soon
20 begin.