Evening star., 1960-12-11
K STREET ACCESS
New Freewoy Progresses
BY GILBERT GIMBLE
Star stan Writer

Those busy highway builders
working behind tall wooden
fences on Rock Creek parkway
are moving right along on a
new ramp to the Whitehurst
freeway.
When the job is completed
in about three years-com-
muters who now stream down
K street will be using it.
At first the project is going
to provide motorists with
merely a detour.
But eventually it will be a
link in the Potomac River free
way. which will run from Fox
hall road NV. to the K street
expressway and provide COM
muters with an express high
way into the heart Of town.
Az 1ACLS OVAuk W
Right now workers are con-
structing-just below K street
a series Of 10 piers that will hold
UP a portion Of the new ramp.
The two-lane ramp will
stretch from Twenty-sixth
street all the way across Rock
Greek and connect with the
existing Whitehurst freeway at
a point near Thirty-first street.
Later the rest Of the Poto-
mac River freeway will be built.
paralleling the Whitehurst
freeway on the river side. The
projected date for completion Of
the expanded freeway has not
been set.
But the main reason for con-
structing the ramp now is so
that K street traffic will be
able to use it to get onto the
Whitehurst freeway when work
on the inner loop begins. A
structure must be built to carry
K street traffic over the inner
loop about Twenty-seventh
street onto the freeway.
To Serve as DetOur
After the K street structure
Is completed, the new ramp will
be used to carry downtown
bound traffic of the Whitehurst
freeway. The ramp win split
into separate lanes with one
carrying traffic southbound and
the other northbound on the
inner loop.
During its use as a detour.
one lane Of the ramp will tenn
porarily tie into K street for
outbound traffic. and the second
lane will tie into I street for
downtown traffic.
Still to be worked out is the
problem Of how to detour traf-
fic on Virginia avenue headed
for the freeway. A similar tun-
mel must be built for the inner
loop where it is to run under
the intersection at Virginia
avenue and New Hampshire
avenue. Studies are being made
now to iron this out.
Tunnel In Progress
A separate K street project
Is also proceeding. Workers are
now digging a tunnel below
Washington circle and K street
is to be depressed from about
Twentieth to Twenty fifth
streets. Transforming it into an
expressway. This job is ex-
pected to be finished at about
the time the new freeway ramp
Is ready for use.
Most Of the heavy commuter
traffic now using the White
hurst freeway proceeds onto
Key Bridge to cross the river.
The bridge now accommodates
more than 81 900 vehicles daily.
Highway planners are now
considering giving Key Bridge
a reprieve from this heavy
coinmuter load once their
roadway plans materialize.
Harold L. Aitken, highway
director, said yesterday that
access to the bridge from the
freeway may be closed of
when a new upstream bridge is
completed.
He said the old span then
would be used primarily to
carry so-called local traffic
those cars headed for George
town, the M street area and
other nearby points.
Present plans call for con-
Struction of a new steel span
at Three Sisters Island, lust
upstream from Key Bridge. It
is scheduled to be built by 1866.
Once the Theodore Roosevelt
Bridge is finished. the new span