Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-06-13
Another Highway SquobbIe

The Maryland State Roads Commission has
been given a sample of the type of confusion
which the National Capital Planning Commits
sion too often has injected into highway plan
ming in the Washington area. The District
Highway Department usually has been the
unhappy victim in the past with unfortunate
results for the city's bridge and other traffic
relief programs Now the Maryland agency Is
flabbergasted by an apparent somersault by the
NCPC on tentative plans for a combined belt
road-Route 240 highway through short stretch
of Rock Creek Park in Montgomery County. AS
a result. six months of planning and inter-
jursdictional discussions on the joint-road prof.
oct have come to naught and the future of the
740 approach plans has been left hanging in
midair.
The strange misunderstanding as to the ap-
parently favorable attitude of the NCPC dates
from last November, when Chairman Mccain
of the Maryland roads agency sent Chairman
Bartholomew of the planning group tele-
gram asking NCPC reactions to certain alterna
tive proposals for bringing 24O traffic through
the park. In his telegraphed reply Mr. Barthol-
omew said his commission approved extension
of the belt road through the park but opposed
extension of Route 240 through it, However, in
response to query as to whether NCPC would
approve junction of 240 and the belt road
outside the park, to permit use of the belt road
through the park'by 240 traffic, the NCPC chair
man wired: my understanding is yes, the
commission having accepted assurances road
way in park would not be used for truck traffic"
At that time Mr.. Mccain issued statement
commencing Mr.. Bartholomew for his favorable
response to the compromise Goint road) plan
and saying that the Roads Commission "as
. sunles that his (Mr Bartholomew under
standing is shared by the majority of the mem
bers of his commission"
There have been numerous indications
since then that the assumption of the Mary
land authorities was correct. Acting on the
implicit agreement, the Maryland National Cap
ital Park and Planning Commission and the
State Roads Commission hired a prominent
consulting firm to prepare detailed plans for
the Joint parkway. There have been a num-
Der of conferences between staff members of
the Maryland and Federal groups over the
project, presumably with complete accord over
the use of the belt parkway by 240 traffic, eX-
ceptng trucks. 1t was not until the NCPC
passed on the proposed detailed plan that re-
versal of the assumed understanding developed
Mr. Bartholomew has commended that he
had never agreed to use the belt parkway Sec
ton as link in the 24O approach to downtown
Washington. Unfortunately, such an explana-
ton never was made during the six months
that Maryland has been working on revised
plans for the 240-belt highway link Yet 1t has
been widely publicized during that time that
Maryland officials and their consultants were
proceeding on the basis of their original under
standing with the NCPC. Small wonder that
the Maryland highway authorities are indig-
nant and are determined to oppose vigorously
the new roadblock raised against their long and
earnest efforts to coordinate their highway
program with that of the Nations Capital
Unfortunately, the chief sufferer from this lat
est battle between the park and highway plan
ners will be the public-which already has
suffered too much from these recurrent
squabbleS.