No Clear Route Around the Whitehurst

By Robert Thomson
Sunday, October 1, 2006

Perhaps so many people simply call it the "Whitehurst" because it's so ridiculous to complete the title with the word "Freeway."

This is not one of those drive-with-the-top-down California freeways. This is the bunny slope of highways in the nation's capital, an elevated road that, on a good day, allows commuters to crank it up to 20 mph as they cruise beside the Potomac River for, oh, 30 seconds.

Linked to Canal Road and the Key Bridge on one end and K and E streets on the other, the Whitehurst is a relic of an urban highway system that never happened. Yet many commuters love it because it keeps them away from M Street, a gridlockian crawl in which no sane person would voluntarily participate.

But here's the tension: The high-up Whitehurst casts a shadow over the Georgetown waterfront. It walls off city dwellers from their principal waterway.

So the District commissioned a recently completed feasibility study on taking it down and replacing it. Options include a souped-up K Street or a tunnel.

Sounded like the perfect setup for a city versus suburbs story, but it's more complicated. Many in the District are unwilling to forget the freeway.

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

Why there is such a study to begin with is beyond me and most of the thousands of D.C., Virginia and Maryland residents who commute to work on the Whitehurst.

It is common sense that deconstruction of the Whitehurst would cause traffic problems that are hard to overestimate. Anyone who commutes from Northwest Washington, Virginia (via Chain Bridge and Canal Road) or Maryland (via MacArthur Boulevard and Foxhall Road) knows of the nightmare that would ensue should the Whitehurst be taken down.

In addition, the impact on Georgetown is certain to cause constant gridlock. The costs of alternatives in the study -- such as a tunnel under K Street or a boulevard along lower K Street -- boggle the mind.

The aesthetic issue is in the mind of the beholder -- I and many others believe driving on the Whitehurst offers a beautiful view of the Potomac and the riverside. In any event, spending the kind of money necessary to tear down the Whitehurst and replace it with the alternatives now listed (which will cause traffic nightmares way beyond any experienced now) just for those who believe the Whitehurst is aesthetically displeasing is not remotely justified.

-- Joe Rich

Palisades

The study options include a beautiful hypothetical roadway along a riverfront park. Reminds me of San Francisco's Embarcadero. But if you're looking for a review of urban design, this is the wrong place.

This is a traffic column.

The best option for traffic is a tunnel, taking what's up in the air and putting it under the ground.

No sane leaders would endorse a tunnel. The District's consultants estimate that the longer of two possible tunnels would cost $150 million. The study says that about 3,000 vehicles travel on the Whitehurst during the peak hour in the morning. That's not enough traffic to justify a tunnel.

By comparison, one six-car Metro train going through the Rosslyn tunnel can carry about a thousand people in or out of the District.

The study identifies a variety of other options, such as the super K Street, with or without a connection to the Key Bridge. On the lower end, the price is $25 million. But each alternative comes at a cost to commuters, the neighborhoods or both, adding potential conflicts between vehicles and between vehicles and pedestrians.

The District has the right to decide this one, but it's looking like a potentially big investment without a clear win.

Work Ending on Muncaster Road

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

Would you be able to provide any information on the reopening of Muncaster Road in Derwood? It has been closed since June 15 for repair work on the bridge.

Morning traffic on Bowie Mill Road (from 108 to Muncaster Mill Road) is a virtual parking lot from 7 to 9 a.m. every weekday. Main traffic arteries are few and far between in this area, and apparently Muncaster Road was one of them. The strain is being felt by everyone.

-- Lisa Sieg

Derwood

Montgomery County's Department of Public Works and Transportation says the Muncaster Road project is wrapping up and that it could reopen in a few days. The work involved replacing the bridge over Rock Creek, slightly altering the road alignment for about 3,300 feet and improving storm drainage and storm water management.

Dr. Gridlock appears Thursday in the Extra and Sunday in the Metro section. You can send e-mails todrgridlock@washpost.comor write to Dr. Gridlock at 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Send faxes to 703-352-3908. Include your name, town and county, and phone numbers.