[Archived] City of Alexandria Files Court Challenge to FHWA’s Approval of 12-Lane Replacement for Woodrow Wilson Bridge


News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:	Friday, January 30, 1998
Contact:	Tom Brannan, Assistant City Manager, (703) 838-4300

City of Alexandria Files Court Challenge to FHWA’s Approval of 12-Lane Replacement for Woodrow Wilson Bridge

The City of Alexandria, Virginia, today filed suit in United States District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Federal Highway Administration’s decision to replace the existing six-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge with a 12-lane, $1.7 billion facility.

The City's suit seeks a court injunction prohibiting the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) from taking any further actions to implement its decision until the agency complies with requirements of federal environmental and historic preservation laws.

In its complaint, the City maintains that FHWA did not give adequate consideration to the 10-lane bridge alternative, and failed to adequately evaluate the effects of the 12-lane project on the city's historic resources. The City alleges that the decision approving the 12-lane bridge violated provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Department of Transportation Act.

"The 12-lane bridge project, with its massive interchanges, greatly widened approaches, and destruction of buildings will do irrevocable harm to the City and its neighborhoods," said Alexandria Mayor Kerry J. Donley. "FHWA’s decision failed to consider workable, far less costly, and far less harmful alternative projects," he said. "The decision was made without

fully assessing the impacts of the 12-lane bridge or its expansive new interchanges on air quality and other environmental resources, without evaluating the damage that will be done to the City’s historic districts, and without giving serious consideration to how the project's harmful effects could be minimized or avoided entirely," said Mayor Donley.

"The 12-lane bridge will cut a 425-foot swath through Alexandria’s National Historic District, displacing homes and businesses and eliminating parkland in one of the nation’s most historic and densely populated cities. Alexandria’s City Council recognizes the need to build a new bridge and, for the good of the region, we are prepared to endure the hardships associated with years of construction activity and a permanent bridge that is reasonably larger than what we have now. But there is no reason the City should have to bear the additional harm that will arise from a project that is far too big and expensive, and that makes little sense from a transportation standpoint," he said.

"For a right-sized bridge, we need look no further than the recently reconstructed American Legion Bridge, which carries 10 lanes of Beltway traffic across the Potomac River between Fairfax County and Montgomery County," said Mayor Donley. "FHWA’s own studies indicate that the 10-lane bridge favored by the City of Alexandria is more than adequate to meet the future traffic projected for the Capital Beltway," he said.

The 12-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement bridge, approved by the FHWA on November 25, 1997, is nearly 300 feet wide and will contain twice as many lanes of traffic as the present bridge. The 12-lane bridge includes side-by-side replacement bridges, massive new interchanges, HOV lanes, and separate roadways for express and local traffic. It will require the demolition of four residential apartment buildings in Alexandria and the displacement of over 330 households, as well as the destruction of commercial buildings containing numerous businesses and the loss of valuable parkland at Jones Point Park.

"We believe a 10-lane bridge, together with appropriately sized interchanges, can be built in a shorter period of time, at substantially lower costs, and without the need for tolls," said Mayor Donley.

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