Evening star., 1941-12-09
Ihree-CentGas
Approved
By Senators
u. S. Aid on Five
!. Highway Projects
Recommended
Ry ]. A, O'LEARY.

The House bill raising the District
gasoline tax from to 4 cents q
gallon was cut to cents by Sen
ate subcommittee today with a rec
ommendation that the Federal Gov
eminent pay part of the cost of five
urgent highway projects needed to
serve national defense areas in and
near Washington.
The subcommittee decided that
the District, like other communities,
should slow down the rate OF con-
struction on normal Improvements
during the emergency. If this is
done and the National Government
shares the cost of the five semi
Federal projects, the increase OF l
instead of cents in the present
local rate will be sufficient, the re-
port concluded.
Fringe Parking Farley.
R.F. Camalier, counsel to the Sem
ate District Committee, announced
the same subcommittee will hold a
conference tomorrow afternoon In an
effort to make report on the sep
arate fringe parking bill. If de-
cision is reached, the full committee
will be called for Friday to act on
both bills
Discussing general aspects of the
Districts traffic situation, the sub
committee suggested there may be
need for a further GENERALIZATION of
responsibility" and indicated rec
concentrations from the Commits
sioners on that question would be
welcomed by the subcommittee.
The five urgent defense projects
were listed as follows:
l. Grade separation structure and
street car terminal at Fourteenth
street and Maine avenue S.W.. to i'm
prove approach to Highway Bridge.
2. K street elevated highway over
Rock Greek with connections to Key
Bridge and the Northwest sections,
primarily to speed traffic over that
bridge.
8. Independence avenue extension
from Fourteenth street to Lincoln
Memorial Circle to provide more
adequate approaches to Memorial
Bridge.
Road Widening Job.
4 Twenty-third street Northwest
roadway widening and grade sepa-
ration structure, with other improve
ments to the Lincoln Memorial
Bridge approaches.
5. Proposed new bridge across the
Anacostia River at South Capitol
street to provide a direct route to
Boiling Field.
The first four are primarily to
afford access to the big Army and
Navy Office buildings being erected
in nearby Arlington County. The
Federal Government should contrib
ute to these bridge approaches. the
report said, to the extent to which
early completion is necessary for the
Federal buildings.
"These projects will cost approx
matelv S6000.000. and in order to
meet the needs Of the Federal Gov
ernment. work on them should be
begun by February l. 1912, and as
far as possible, completed by De-
cember, 1912" the report, filed by
Subcommittee Chairman Burton,
said. His colleagues are Senators
Overton of Louisiana and Tydings
of Maryland.
Would Raise S1,500.800.
An increase of one cent would
raise s1.5O0000 additional annually
and. together with existing gas tax
funds, would finance s35 900 900
highway improvement program un-
der the Whitehurst report in 10
years. For that reason, the sub
committee made the increase effec-
tive until 1851 instead of 1949 in
the House bill.
The report omits from present
consideration the proposed new Po-
tomac River crossing project in the
vicinity of Alexandria, estimated to
cost S9,500000. The report ex-
pressed the belief that Highway,
Key and Memorial Bridges seem to
be adequate for the present. "but
the approaches on both sides of
the river call for immediate action
by the Federal Government"