Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL)– The Arlington Memorial Bridge needs to be rebuilt as soon as possible; otherwise, it will have to close to cars in 2021, according to the National Park Service.
“The infrastructure is literally crumbling. The bridge is in a shameful condition. It should never have come to this,” said AAA Mid-Atlantic’s John Townsend.
Towsend blamed the bridge’s rapid deterioration on Congress, which hasn’t allocated money to pay for repairs over time. Now the bridge is crumbling and needs an estimated $250 million in repairs.
Townsend said Congress ignored multiple warning signs including a car driving through the railings and off the bridge, and forced lane restrictions and weight limits on the bridge last May for emergency repairs.
Congressman Gerry Connolly’s commute takes him over the bridge daily along with nearly 70,000 other vehicles. He also blamed Congress for the bridge’s condition.
“This is a critical piece of the transportation network in the nation’s capitol, and it can’t be seen as a parochial, regional or local issue. It is a federal issue, and Congress needs to step up to the plate here,” Connolly said.
He and Townsend are hopeful Thursday’s news will be the impetus Congress needs to allocate funding for the bridge.
Connolly said closing the bridge to cars would be a nightmare scenario which would send most drivers over the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge instead.
“It’s already at gridlock. You close the Memorial Bridge forcing people to use that as the alterative, and you are guaranteeing a morning rush hour gridlock that will extend for hours and hours,” Connolly said.
In a press release, NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis said his agency will need support from other federal, state and local entities to compete successfully for money from the Department of Transportation.
“We are pursuing every funding possibility to find a path forward to repair the Memorial Bridge,” Jarvis said.
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