Maryland and Virginia have not figured out what to do with two of the 12 lanes planned for the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge now rising in the Potomac River.
The lanes must be used for carpools, trains or another form of transit under the deal that launched the project to replace the aging span, but state leaders said they have not talked about which to choose.
"When the bridge opens, those lanes at that time will represent excess capacity," Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said.
The lanes will serve as shoulders until a use is designated.
In an indication of how little the two states have discussed the issue, Maryland leaders said they're not considering rail because Virginia opposes it, while Virginia's transportation secretary said the state is open to rail and other possibilities.
Planners said the situation will have little direct effect on drivers because the new, twin-span bridge scheduled to be completed in 2008 will have as many lanes as there are on the Capital Beltway segments it will link.
But the delay in deliberation has frustrated transit supporters, who fought to add the lanes and ensure that the bridge was strong enough to sustain trains, the type of transit they would like to see. Their hope is that a light-rail or Metro line will be extended across the bridge and will become part of a circular line that mirrors the Beltway.
They said they are not as concerned about whether transit is on the bridge the moment it opens as they are about regional priorities. While talk of transit has lagged, officials in Virginia have inked a deal to add toll lanes to a portion of the Beltway, and Maryland officials are proceeding with plans to widen their side of the road.
"It just seems like nobody's really been willing to be the champion for this," said Chris Carney, conservation organizer for the Sierra Club. "It just seems like a lot of inaction."
Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends of Maryland, an environmental group, said that "it's as important to get future light rail or heavy rail across the bridge as it is to get truck traffic through" and that priorities are limited to "a lot of roads and an awful lot of pavement . . . that's just going to be filled up with congestion."
Metro drew up plans for a line four years ago, but officials said work has been set aside in the absence of a decision on the bridge.
Transportation officials in both states said they've had only the most preliminary of discussions about what to do with the lanes because they have been focusing on other priorities, including building an east-west highway in the Maryland suburbs and toll lanes on the Beltway. They said they plan to get together this year to begin formal talks.
