Washington DC metro area has America's widest bridge - a tale of two bridges, toll and tax

We hate to hurt the pride of New Jersey, but they DON'T have the widest bridge in North America, as their governor Jon Corzine, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and others have been claiming. It's here in the Washington DC metro area. Our Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Capital Beltway (I-95/495) has a total bridge deck width of 74.9m v 66.1m (246ft v 217ft) of the Garden State Parkway's Driscoll Bridge over the Raritan River.  (see table)

It isn't even close. Our wide bridge is 8.8m (29ft) or 13.4% wider than their wide bridge.

In terms of number of travel lanes, however, the NJ Turnpike Authority's Driscoll Bridge is top dog among US bridges.

It now has 15 travel lanes v 14 travel lanes on the PANYNJ's George Washington Bridge which hitherto had been the bridge with the nation's most lanes. The Driscoll was one of a bunch of bridges with 12 travel lanes until the recent addition of a third span and the rehab of the two existing spans. Carefully staged work over the past six years has produced a nice widening of the Driscoll Bridge to 15 travel lanes plus 6 shoulder lanes as we reported here:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4187

The Wilson Bridge of 12 travel lanes is partly in Virginia, partly in Maryland, partly in the District of Columbia. The DC portion is tiny. We could call it a Maryland bridge because most of the width of the Potomac River and therefore the bridge is Maryland territory. But the bridge structure is owned by the feds - the FHWA -. and Maryland and Virginia DOTs have formed a joint organization to operate it.

A typical political contrivance!

The Wilson Bridge is wider than the Driscoll because:

- its travel lanes are a foot wider - 12ft (3.66m) vs 11ft (3.35m) because the Driscoll is for light vehicles only (no trucks over 3.18t, 7000pds)

- it has eight breakdown shoulders v six on the Driscoll, and

- it has a bike path/pedestrian lane that the Driscoll doesn't.

The Driscoll Bridge measures 628m (2060ft) over water compared to 1424m (4672ft) of the Wilson Bridge.  The Wilson bridge has 35 spans and is 1852m (6075ft) total length. Both are located in tidal rivers most of the width of which is quite shallow water. The Driscoll Bridge has an untolled US9 bridge of 2x3 lanes right alongside it, giving the impression from a distance of a single hugely wide span.

The Wilson Bridge is much lower than the Driscoll but has a bascule (draw) span for shipping whereas the Driscoll is a fixed span rising to a peak to provide 41m (135ft) shipping clearance underneath.

The DC Wilson Bridge project is way more expensive than the Driscoll project: $2541m v $225m.

About two-thirds of the cost of the Wilson Bridge project lies in reconstruction of the approach expressways into four roadways for several miles into both Virginia and Maryland, and the rebuilds of four major interchanges on either side of the bridge.

The Wilson Bridge project's strict Potomac River bridge cost is around $827m, still nearly four times the cost of the Driscoll Bridge. The Wilson Bridge is completely new, the old bridge having been demolished and removed.

Toll authority discipline v grant money largesse and laxity may be in play here too.

Like most bridges of this scale the Wilson Bridge was planned as a toll bridge, and it would have been very successful as such. But the then-Governor of Maryland Paris Glendening was adamant it had to be toll-free.

Local delegations to the US Congress managed to contrive a huge earmark (a "special appropriation") of $1,544m toward the Wilson Bridge, and the states used their regular tax-based revenues for the other $-billion.

Taxpayers put up not a dollar for the Driscoll Bridge, since it was fully funded by borrowing secured to the NJ Turnpike Authority's toll revenues. Users will pay for it. By contrast the Wilson Bridge is a typical Washington DC boondoggle designed to have everyone but the users pay.

Photos by Scott  M Kozel of Roads to the Future at special webnsite: http://www.capital-beltway.com

Driscoll Bridge photos from http://www.aerialphotosofnj.com and Flickr

TOLLROADSnews 2009-06-02 SLIGHT CHANGES/ADDITIONS 2009-06-09 23:20