WASHINGTON - The project to rebuild the dilapidated Woodrow Wilson Bridge that carries Interstate 95 over the Potomac River has cleared two major hurdles: one financial, the other legal.
Congressional negotiators have agreed to cough up the remaining $600 million in funding needed for the $1.97 billion replacement of the overused, federally owned six-lane drawbridge that links Alexandria, Va., to Oxon Hill, Md., Rep. Thomas M. Davis 3d, R-Va., announced yesterday.
The agreement would raise federal funding for the project to a total of $1.56 billion, while Virginia and Maryland would provide the bulk of the remaining funds. It also means that neither state is likely to issue tax-exempt bonds to fund its share of the project.
Total costs for the project were previously estimated at between $2.1 billion and $2.5 billion, but John R. Undeland, spokesman for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Center -- the office sponsored by state and federal agencies that is overseeing project design and construction -- recently said that new estimates show the project will cost a total of $1.97 billion.
Agreement to provide the added federal funds came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court removed a potential roadblock to construction when it refused, without comment, to hear an appeal by a local citizens' group that wanted a 10-lane bridge instead of the planned 12-lane replacement. An environmental group has reportedly vowed to file a legal challenge to the project, but further details about the proposed action were not available at press time.
Davis, the chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on the District of Columbia, said that federal lawmakers from both parties -- some of whom had vigorously opposed increasing the federal contribution to the project -- agreed to add the extra funds to the $900 million that Congress previously committed to the project in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.
The extra funding, which was added to the fiscal 2001 transportation appropriations bill during a negotiating session between House and Senate lawmakers yesterday, will ease traffic gridlock in the highly congested Washington, D.C., area, said Davis. "This is a day to remember for the greater Washington region," he said.
Once the transportation spending bill becomes law, the agreement means the entire $1.97 billion cost of the bridge would be provided for. The remaining funding is expected to come from: Virginia and Maryland, which have each pledged $200 million, $60 million in appropriations under the National Highway System Act , and $15 million from the District of Columbia's highway program .
David L. Marin, communications director for Davis' subcommittee, said that he expected the House to vote on the revised spending bill today and the Senate to probably act later this week. President Clinton earlier this year had expressed his support for the increased funding.
Maryland Treasurer Richard N. Dixon and other bond market participants had said that the project could be financed in part with tolls and tax-exempt municipal bonds, but those involved with the project consistently rejected that option.
Physical work on the project began yesterday with the demolition of three vacant buildings on the Virginia side of the bridge.
