Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-01-17
Bridge Quarre|
Delays Design
For FreeWay
District Officials
Await Congress
Action on Spans
BY George Beveridee

BY George Beveridge
Progress on Washington S
$23.6 million Southwest freeway
already has been delayed several
months by the controversy over
new Potomac River bridges.
District highway officials last
July got 100000 from the cur
rent years budget-plus $780,
900 in Federal aid-to plan and
design the project. They had
expected then that the planning
would be half done by now.
Instead, District Engineer
Commissioner Louis w. Prentiss
said last night, the present
prospect is that detailed plan
ming won't even start until after
Congress reaches a decision on
the downtown bridge issue.
6 Or s Lane Freeway Debated.
The main reason is that the
freeway's design depends entirely
upon whether it would tie into
existing Fourteenth stree t
bridges, as District officials want,
or into a new Reaches Run
bridge. as proposed by the Ma
tional Capital Planning Com
mission. Among major diff
ferences between the two plans
is whether the freeway would
be six or eight lanes wide.
The freeway, part of the road
network planned to carry traffic
around the congested core Of the
city, would follow the general
line of F street S.W. In i'm
portance, the District Highway
Department has the freeway
earmarked as it's next major
project. Officials plan to begin
land acquisition next year.
The planning-once it begins
will take about a year. The
construction could be finished
in two years. But the timing.
officials said. will depend largely
on whether the city gets its
$305 million public works pro-
gram. Without the program,
the freeway still is a "muSt"-but
it couldn't be built as soon.
Other Stumbling Blocks. =
Even before the current bridge
fight. the freeway had a couple
of planning stumbling blocks
to overcome. One. which still
exists, is whether Tenth street
should be used chiefly to benefit
Washington Virginia bridge traf-
fic or to serve as a gateway to
Southwest redevelopment areas
near the Washington Channel.
officials, said the big questions
holding up the planning. how
ever. center around the Potomac
River bridge issue. Here is the
way the differences stand:
The Highway Department
wants a six-lane freeway. ex-
tending from east Of the Cap
itol along the line of F street
S.W.
At Tenth, 1t would connect
with a new six-lane bridge over
the Washington Channel to
East Potomac Park. There, four
of the bridge lanes-two in each
direction - would connect with
Ohio drive. leading toward the
Lincoln Memorial. Each of the
remaining two bridge lanes would
connect with one of the two
existing Fourteenth street bridges
over the Potomac.
The planners. however. want
their proposed six lane Reaches
Run bridge over the Potomac to
feed on a direct line into the
new Washington channel bridge,
widening to eight lanes with tie
ms to Ohio drive, then connect
ing with the freeway. The free
way, under the planners scheme,
would remain an eight-lane
width eastward to Third street
S.W.
Feed Into Southwest Freeway,
Thus, the vast majority of
Washington bound traffic over
the Reaches Run bridge would
feed directly into the Southwest
freeway. Traffic, under this plan,
would leave the freeway on
north-south streets nearest to
each cars destination or bypass
the central area. The planners
figure that the freeway need not
be connected directly to existing
Fourteenth street bridges, with
most of its traffic leading to or
from the Reaches Run bridge.
However. Gen. Prentiss con-
tends that the Highway Depart
ment's plan for connecting the
freeway to existing bridges
would perform the same func-
ton as the Reaches Run bridge
but without the need for the
new bridge. Instead of Reaches
Run. the Highway Department
wants a new six-lane Potomac
crossing from E street NV. to
Arlington boulevard and other
highways in Virginia.
Gen. Prentiss also cited an
other reason for connecting ex-
listing bridges to the Washington
Channel crossing and freeWay:
The Washington bound Four
tenth street bridge approach to