Evening star., 1938-10-16
THOMAS CIRCLES
UNDERPASSWORK
MAY START SOON
Plans Are Near Completion.
Futi|ity of Citizens
Protests Seen.
. ORDER WILL BE ISSUED
UNLESS HITCH OCCURS
Bids for Grade Separation
Structure on K Street to
Be Advertised Soon.
Unless some unforeseen hitch occurs,

Unless some unforeseen hitch occurs
construction of the much-debateo
traffic underpass for Thomas Circle viii
be ordered by the Commissioners as
soon as plans are completed and ar
acceptable bid received from a con-
tractor, District officials announced
yesterday.
Protests from a group of property
owners were carried to President Roose.
welt in recent months but, so far as
could be ascertained yesterday, no in
dication has come from the White
House that the project should be helc
up with the idea that Congress might
withdraw its approval of the project.
Details of the design for the $500.
600 traffic engineering project are te
be completed in a few days, according
to 1t. Col. David McCoach, jr, the
new Engineer Commissioner He sale
they would be reviewed by the Com.
nlissioners and if no planning diff.
Guilty arose, the city heads would ad.
vertise for bids from contractors.
The project may be started before
the end Of the year, since customarily
no longer than 30 days is allowed fol
the filing of bids
To Advertise Overpass Bids.
simultaneously, Capt. H. c. White
hurst, director of highways, announced
yesterday that bids for construction of
the grade-separation overpass to be
erected at the intersection of K street
NV. and the Rock Creek and Potomac
parkway would be advertised tomor-
row. These bids are to be opened No
vember Is. This is another of the
traf1lc engineering projects approved
by Congress at the past session. An
appropriation of $4,000 was made
for it.
The Thomas Circle underpass is to
be built in the line of Massachusetts,
avenue. From the circle. the subway
will run west to point about half
way between the circle and Fifteenth
street, and to the east to a point
about two-thirds of the distance from
the circle to Thirteenth street.
The subway will provide four lanes
for traffic, two east bound and two
west bound, and on the surface level
Of Massachusetts, avenue there will
remain two lanes on either side of the
subway. One of these, on either side,
may be reserved for parking.
After protests of the group of resi-
dents near Thomas Circle were re-
ceived at the White House, it was
learned that the project was given
joint reconsideration by members of
The Fine Arts Commission, the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning
Commission and the Board of District
Commissioners. To date there has
been no formal announcement of their
actions.
No Steps Taken.
However, in view of the announce
ment by Engineer Commissioner Nc
Coach, it was assumed that the three
agencies had taken no steps to pre-
vent completion of the project, as
considered by Congress.
The K street grade separation struc-
ture is designed to eliminate the traf-
, fic tie-ups that occur at rush Pc
riods. Under the plan, K street is
to be carried over the parkway drive.
In connection with this, new bridge
will be built over Rock Greek, to re-
place the present old two-lane steel
bridge. At either end of the over
pass, ramps will be carried down to
the surface roads, in modified 'clov-
er-leaf" development similar to the
one existing at the Virginia end of
Highway Bridge to afford easy con-
.nection with the Mount Vernon high
way.
While the K street overpass will be
an entity it is designed as the first
unit of the proposed K street ele-
waited highway to be carried to Key
Bridge as traffic bypass for con-
gested M street in Georgetown. This
latter project has been postponed for
year or two, but officials say the K
street structure is so designed that ii
easily could be tied in with the X
street elevated highway when its con-