Evening star., 1954-04-04
Alternate Plan
BridgeCost Put
AT $751; Million
Estimate Excludes
FederuIIy Financed
Jones Point Spun
By George Beveridoe

LOUIS w. FrenClSS, DlStf1cC En-
gineer Commissioner.
Gen. PrentiSs stressed to q
House District subcommittee he
was proposing the program only
if Congress refused the Districts
top-priority bridge choice: an E
street bridge.
BY the same token, the Ma
tional Capital Planning Commits
sion indorsed the 9-point pro-
poSal as second-choice alter
nate in the event Congress re-
jects its Reaches Run bridge
idea. The planners vigorously
oppose the E street project.
Bypass at Jones Point.
The first point in the alter
i nate program, a Washington
bypass bridge at Jones Point,
/ Alexandria, is supported by both
the District Highway Depart
ment and the Planning Com
mission as a Federally- financed
project. It would cost about $40
million.
j. N. Robertson, District high
way director, has prepared the
$28.1 million tentative estimate
for the other eight improve
ments. The estimates will be
brought up to date as more
complete designs are finished.
The cost estimates will be sent
to Gen. Prentiss tomorrow. The
general said he will transmit
them to the House subcommittee
which has wound up public
hearings on the controversial
bridge battle.
Details Of Estimate.
Here is the way Mr.. Robert
sons $28.1 million estimate was
drawn up:
/. A new four-lane south
bound bridge replacing the o.
year-old trestle-topped Four
teenth street span, $11 million.
Congress authorized this bridge
in 1916, at the same time it ap-
proved the new north bound
Fourteenth street crossing. How
ever, the 81 million then au-
thorized for both spans was spent
on the new bridge, so the addi-
tional $11 million authorization
is required.
2. Key bridge: Remove street.
car tracks, replace sidewalks with
new roadways and build new
sidewalks off the bridge with a
cantilever design, and improve
approaches at each end of the
bridge. $2,542,000.
3. Build a new down ramp
from the Whitehurst freeway to
the Rock Creek and Potomac
parkway, $303, 900.
4. Underpass Washington Cir
Gle with a depressed roadway on
the line Of K street from about
Twenty first to Twenty-seventh
streets NV. $8.353.0O0.
S. Improve approach roads
near the Lincoln Memorial, in
cluding tunnel under the
Watergate steps to tie in Ohio
drive Independence avenue traf-
fic with the Rock Creek and Po-
tomac parkway, $2.850,000.
6. Extension Of Fifteenth street
NV. through the Washington
Monument grounds as a six-lane
roadway to better serve the
Fourteenth street bridge, $245,-
900.
7. Provide new roads and in
stall traffic lights to ease the
traffic bottleneck at 1ndepend-
ence avenue and Seventeenth
street NV, 500, 400.
8. Build a span over the Wash
ington Channel to link the
Southwest IF street, freeway,
slated for early construction,
with the two Fourteenth street
bridges and Ohio drive. $2.-
TAO, 900.
Five Already in Program.
Five Of these projects-Key
bridge. Whitehurst freeway,
Washington Circle, Fifteenth
street and the Washington
Channel crossing-already were
planned as part of the city's
$305 million public works pro-
gram now on Capitol Hill.
If the alternate plan were put
into effect. the construction
priority rating of each of them
would be advanced. Their precise
order of construction would have
to be worked out later, Gen.
Prentiss said.
If the works program is ap-
proved-and the E street bridge
is not-there would be enough
money available in the Highway
Fund for orderly construction of
the entire program. officials
noted. The $28.1 million is just
about what the District had in
tended to spend within the next
few years for the E street project.
Park Officials Approval.
Some projects in the alternate
plan, most notably these af-
fecting the Lincoln Memorial
and Washington Monument
grounds. would require approval
by park officials.
In addition, the Planning
Commission retained the right
to approve final design plans by
giving only 'in-principle" ap-
proval to the proposal. The only
clear-cut condition imposed by
the planners, however, was that
the Washington Channel span
be designed so that its location
would not preclude a Reaches
Run bridge If Congress ever sees
| fit to apprOve one in the future