When fully complete, the $2.43 billion bridge will double the capacity of the old six-lane span. Three local lanes and three express lanes will be separated by a short barrier, in each direction. Of those, eight will be for general travel -- two express and two local in each direction -- to match the number on the Beltway. Additionally, the farthest right local lane on each span will serve as a merge for drivers using the interchanges near the bridge.
The first span is scheduled to open in May 2006 and the second, which will be built where the current one stands, in 2008.
Even after a decision on transit is made, officials and construction managers said it could be years before the lanes open because any option would require considerable cost and construction on both shores.
Some said this is no big deal -- the bridge is made to last 75 years, and it's not critical to have transit at its outset. "The good news is that they're there to put in place when the best use is determined," said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
But others said the lack of progress threatens to put off rail for a good chunk of those 75 years, a view confirmed by officials who said that expanding Metro across the bridge would require considerable cost, construction and delay.
"A heavy-rail alternative would be many, many years down the road," Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said.
Others said they worried that the delay would nix rail altogether as pressure builds to do something simpler, such as using the space for high-occupancy toll lanes. HOT lanes, the concept approved for parts of the Virginia Beltway, would satisfy the transit requirement because they are free for buses and carpools, while others would pay for the privilege of using them.
"I'm very worried that the HOT-lane decision was the first of the dominoes and forces and predetermines that a Wilson Bridge HOV-HOT would feed into that," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. "Rail seems nowhere on the radar screen. I'm mad that they're not advancing rail now and that they didn't do it from the beginning of the project."
Planners said that even this option would require a minimum of seven years to complete because of various studies that would need to be done and because carpool lanes would require several more interchanges and an expanded Beltway to accommodate them on both sides of the bridge.
Flanagan said it was conceivable to open the lanes on the bridge for bus service or HOV before then, but "it would be an isolated HOV, not part of a system or overall traffic plan."
