🚀 go-pugleaf

In misc.transport.road Oscar Voss <ovoss@erols.com> wrote:
: IIRC, what the mayor envisions is a 10-lane bridge divided into two
: 5-lane roadways.  The 12-lane proposal would have four roadways
: (2-4-4-2), all with full shoulders.  The extra dividers and shoulders
: add at least 32 feet to the width of the bridge, in addition to the 24
: feet occupied by the two extra lanes.

Point taken.

: shoulders).  But you do have to pay a price, in the form of a wider
: shadow over Jones Point in Alexandria, as well as higher construction
: costs.

Still, 32 feet by 2000 feet (the distance from Royal street to the river).
6,400 sq ft. Not even a quarter acre. And seeing how the new plan includes
what to Washington outsiders can ONLY be described as pork -- that is, the
covered portions of the Beltway with parks built on the top -- plus the
land gained by the demolotion of the old abandoned military building in
Jones Pt Park, plus the extra useability of the under-bridge area, due to
the fewer support structures... I can't find the loss.

: Too bad.  Had Alexandria shot for a 10-lane bridge from the outset,
: instead of holding out for an outlandishly expensive tunnel, I might've
: been more sympathetic.

Perhaps, but the tunnel WAS so elegant a solution -- no skyline worries,
no parkland worries, no more draw span. 

  But now we're at the point where we have hardly
: any time to spare, because the time needed to build the new bridge is
: about as long as the old bridge can hold out until it has to be closed
: to truck traffic (a major disaster if the new bridge isn't ready by
: then, given the poor alternatives available).

You heard it here first: Bentley predicts that trucks will be banned
before a replacement bridge is built. There is simply too much knee-jerk
anti-automobile groundswell here in the DC area.

: In short, it's time to stop screwing around, and for the city of
: Alexandria to gracefully concede that this time it isn't going to have
: everything its own way.    

Probably so. This Alexandria resident is ambivalent about the difference
between 10 or 12 lanes. I still think it's somewhat shortsighted to place
all our transportation eggs in one basket, but given the amazing resitance
to this bridge, which by highway standards is pretty non-invasive, I can't
fathom any other crossings ever being built in the region.

-- 
 > B E N T L E Y <     bentley AT digex DOT net
A long frisbee throw from the pungent and lovely Potomac River
www.access.digex.net/~bentley/remove-this-bot-blocking-part