Evening star., 1950-02-19
Major Road Problem!
ace D. T.. as Traffic
And City Area Grow
BY J. N. Robertson
D. c. Hishwoy Director.

To any one who must travel
each day between the center of
the city and outlying areas, par
! ticularly during peak traffic, there
is substantial evidence that Wash
ington has a highway problem of
major proportions.
Because our highway problem
is essentially regional any serious
attempt to correct existing or an
ticipated deficiencies must take
into consideration the highway
transportation needs of the Metro
politan Area as a whole, and the
solutions, if they are to be effec-
tive, must be worked out in CO.
operation with our neighbors.
To this end, on May 13, 1948
the District Highway Department.
the Federal Bureau of Public
Roads, the Maryland State Roads
Commission and the Virginia
Highway Department executed an
agreement to plan an adequate
system of arterial highways, in
Guiding freeways, to connect the
central area with all the geogra-
phical segmentS of the District
and adjacent portions of Mary
land and Virginia.
The Army, the National Cap
ltal Park and Planning Commits
sion and the various transit COM
panies involved were invited to
join with the contracting States
and the Bureau of Public Roads
in the conclusive phase of this
transportation study.
Major Projects Under Way.
But, although the proper plan
ming of highways and bridges has
finally been recognized as vitality
important, today'S problems are
still a long way from being solved.
And the fact that the District of
Columbia undertook four major
projects simultaneously during the
first postwar program dupont
Circle, new bridge over the Po-
tomac River and the recently
completed Whitehurst Freeway
and South Capitol Street Bridge
is no indication that the highway
problem is on the verge of diSap-
pearing forever.
After the necessary money has
been set aside for the completion
of work now in progress, the re-
mainder of capital outlay funds
will be used to begin construction
of another bridge across the Ana
costa River.
Other Major Projects.
Other major projects that will
be developed from this fund in
succeeding years are the extern
sion of New York avenue to con-
meet with the new Washington
Baltimore Parkway, for the de-
velopment of Arizona avenue
NV, into limited-access high
way to the Northwest, for the
continuation of K street as a
ss-town expressway, and for
the construction of grade separa-
tlon structures at Fifteenth and
H streets NE. at Benning road
and Minnesota avenue NE, and
at New York avenue and Florida
avenue NE.
Major projects, not yet pro-
grammed but under consideration
for future study, contemplate the
construction of an expressway
type facility running in a general
north-south direction to serve the
northern central portion of the
city, a Capitol Hill expressway
which is an extension of Consti-
tuIon and Independence avenues
eastward to the Anacostia River,
thence to connect with the Park
road system and, beyond, to the
new Observation-Disclosures park
way Also under study is an in
termediate circumferential or belt
highway connecting Michigan
avenue in the vicinity of Soldiers
Home with Klingle Road Bridge
over Rock Greek.
| There's a new tow cable which
snaps on the bumper to save lot
of fussing. Then there is the de-
vice to start the motor auto
matically but only when the trans