Evening star., 1961-11-08
Marrow the Issue

The controversy over WaShington's
inner-loop freeway unfortunately has
muShroomed during the last few weeks
into a generalized debate which needs
desperately to be placed within
realistic frame of reference when it is
considered tomorrow by the National
Capital Planning Commission.
For the issue at hand ought not
to be las some would like to make itl
whether there should be a general
moratorium on freeways in the Nations
Capital. The major question now before
the Planning Commission is whether
to indorse four very specific inner-loop
projects on which the District wants
to push ahead. None of these projects
would commit the city to a completion
of the entire loop Nor, in our opinion,
would they in any way jeopardize hopes
for the ultimate development of a rapid
transit system.
The first of the four is a freeway
connection from the new Theodore
Roosevelt Bridge to the Southwest free
way which now is under construction
near Fourteenth street If this link is
not built, the effect will be to dump
massive loads of traffic from the bridge
into Constitution avenue and into E
street NV Indeed, the agreement by
Federal agencies that the bridge should
be built was predicated upon assurances
that such an undesirable result would
not occur. Furthermore, the most diff
cult problem posed by this connection
its diSruptive impact in the Lincoln
Memorial area-haS been solved admi-
rably by the National Park Service plan
for tunnel under the memorial
grounds. Surely there can be no rational
opposition to a link between these
major traffic facilities which already
are under construction.
Similarly, the Southwest freeway
is being built with an extremely high
traffic capacity, which is justified
largely by the understanding that it
would deliver and pick up these traffic
volumes from the So-called East leg of
the inner loop paralleling Eleventh
street Sc. The second and third prof.
ectS now up for approval involve funds
for an interchange at Eleventh street
to make this movement possible, and
land acquisition for the East leg itself.
At its northern terminus, the East leg
would connect with freeway to Mary
land. Thus these first three projects
together form a continuous freeway
from the Roosevelt Bridge to the far
Northeast which-entirely apart from
the rest of the inner loop-may be
considered on its own merits.
Perhaps the most controversial of
the four projects involves the center leg
of the loop, proceeding north from the
Southwest freeway into downtown
Washington. The status of this project,
however, is far from settled, and
all that now is being sought is S15O,OOO
for engineering studies at its southern
end in the event that final agreement
on the leg is reached. These funds will
be in precisely the same status as the
100000 which the Highway Department
now has in hand from the current years
budget to plan a tunnel underpaSs of
the Mall. Not cent of this money has
been spent, nor, according to highway
officials, will it be spent unless the
center leg later is cleared.
Many of those who now are calling
for a moratorium on freeways are
acting out of a fear of their disruptive
impacts on the Federal City Certainly
these dangers exist. But we believe
they are far more likely to be minimized
through cooperative efforts to do so
by such agencies as the Planning
Commission, the Fine Arts Commission
and the Park Service than by any belief
that automobiles, if they are ignored,
might simply stay away.