Evening star., 1952-12-15
Realistic Bridge Planning

The National Capital Planning Commissions
wise decision to support the District Highway
Departments proposal for another Potomac
bridge in the congested central area repre-
sentS realistic planning in the best sense. Sig
nif1cantly, the decision conceded with release
of the Regional Highway Planning Committees
unqualified Endorsement of a central bridge
tentatively recommended for the controversial
E street ste The commission obviously is not
sold on any particular location for the new
bridge. AS has been brought out previously,
there are strong objections from park and con-
servation quarters to any invasion" of Theodore
Roosevelt Island by a bridge. The commission
understandably wants to give careful study to
the site problem.
Thus the battle of the bridges" has dwindled
from a prospective major conflict between the
National Capital Planning Commission and the
District Commissioners to lesser tug-of-war
over sites. The NCPC had threatened to oppose
vigorously any bridge whatever between the
Memorial and Key bridges 1t had been advised
to take such stand by the Bartholomew report,
which pumped instead for immediate construc
ton of the long discussed Alexandria bridge.
Had the commission followed that advice, how
ever, it would have put itself in the uncomfort-
able position of diSregarding the authoritative
and persuasive findings Of the Regional High
way Planning Committee. Those findings, based
on four years of traffic counting and analyzng,
show conclusvely that traffic trends require
construction now of fourth span between the
central section of Washington and the Airing
ton shore
The traffic survey also indicated the need
for a bridge across the river to Alexandria, to
bypass through traffic around the city and to
serve eventually as a link in the outer belt
highway The NCPC and the Regional Planning
Council of which it is a member, favor Simul-
taneous building of the Alexandria and central
area structures The commission has joined in
the move to place the Alexandria bridge down.
stream from Shepherds Landing, originally sug
gested as the District terminus. The proposed
Jones Point location certainly has advantages
over Shepherds Landing, not the least of which
is the bypassing of downtown Alexandria.
The planning body has reiterated it's inter-
est in a third bridge, to connect Nebraska avenue
with Arlington County. Such a bridge would
bring added relief to bottleneck conditions on
the Key and Chain bridges.
With COMMUNICATIVE support being mobi-
lzed behind construction in the immediate
future of the Alexandria and central bridges
the next problem is the determination of exact
locations for the projects. Every effort should
be made, of course, to avoid as much as possible
disturbance of park properties, which are the
Capitals justifably famed natural assets. The
controlling factor in the final choices must be
the public interest. Determining what is best
for the people of this growing area as whole
calls for consideration of practical problems
along with park preservation. Reconciling the
two usually is difficult to do. All agencies con-
cerned should join in an earnest attempt to
reach an agreement that will pave the way for
early congressional action to facilitate the flow
of traffic across the Potomac River.