An artist's drawing shows the design chosen for the new bridge. The bridge will be 70 feet high and rest on 18 V-shaped sets of supports.

By Alice Reid and Brooke A. Masters
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 19, 1998; Page A01

A series of sweeping arches would carry a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge across the Potomac River in the design for a 12-lane replacement span chosen yesterday by a panel of local officials and architectural experts.

The winning plans, created jointly by two engineering consultants, represent a "graceful, seamless, open" design, said the panel chairman, former Maryland governor Harry R. Hughes.

"We chose this design because we believe it respects our present and past and will be celebrated by future generations as a landmark structure," Hughes said.

The unveiling of the design in Alexandria represents a milestone in what has been a sometimes contentious 10-year process of planning to replace the six-lane federally owned bridge. The 36-year-old structure, built to handle 75,000 vehicles a day, is crumbling under the weight of the 190,000 vehicles pounding across it daily. Engineers warn that they might have to impose weight restrictions on trucks as early as 2004.

Supports on the new bridge, a drawing of which is above, would be spaced 300 feet apart. The current supports are 100 feet apart.

Regional and federal officials settled two years ago on a 12-lane structure. They hope to start construction in two years, although it's still unclear who will pay the $1.8 billion price tag. The federal government has committed $900 million, but Virginia and Maryland officials want to increase that share. Also undecided is whether drivers would be charged tolls.

Yesterday's decision nailed down specifics of how that 12-lane drawbridge would be built and how it would look.

The idea, said the designers, was to devise a bridge that looked as light and airy as possible, but was still strong enough to bear the massive weight of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 95.

To achieve that goal, they decided to rest the 70-foot-high bridge on 18 V-shaped sets of supports, each separated by about 300 feet. That's a big difference from the current bridge, which at 55 feet high rests on a virtual forest of vertical pilings, 57 sets of them set about 100 feet apart.

"The arches spring from the river," said architect Harry Robinson, a member of Hughes's panel. "It's as if Neptune's hand . . . is holding this bridge from shore to shore."

Competition to choose the design got underway in January, when federal highway officials solicited proposals. Seven firms or partnerships responded, some with more than one entry. Hughes's 15-member panel chose a joint design by two firms – De Leuw, Cather & Co and Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist & Birdsall – which have been partners on several high-profile bridge projects across the country.

"All the designs were good, but we liked this best, as the most graceful and seamless," Hughes said.

Instant reviews of the work – by local officials, outside architects and waterfront strollers in Old Town Alexandria – were somewhat mixed yesterday. Most thought it an improvement over the look of the current bridge, although some saw limits in the new approach.

Even some Alexandrians – who are fighting in court to force officials to build a narrower bridge than planned – lauded the design.

"Given the options," said Del. Marian Van Landingham (D-Alexandria), "it does look like an attractive solution."

"Both light and open," agreed Alexandria Mayor Kerry J. Donley (D), who served on the panel that chose the winner.

Barbara Travis, who looks down on the bridge from her 12th-floor apartment, praised the archlike effect of the bridge supports.

"It will be interesting to see the shadows," she said. "A curved line is prettier than a squared-off line." The current bridge, she said, "looks like Legos," while the new design "looks like it took a little more thought."

Old Town carpenter Roy Groves, 57, said he'd hoped for a bigger departure from the current bridge. "You want elegance," Groves said as his Great Dane, Mollie, romped through Jones Point Park beneath the existing span. "These arches are an attempt, but they fall short."

Joseph Rosa, chief curator at the National Building Museum and an architect and historian, said the design reflects the recent trend in architecture toward structures that "lie lightly" on the landscape, rather than impinging on it.

"At first glance," he said, "it looks very similar to what's already there." But on a closer look, he said, the bridge appears surprisingly light because of the open spaces between relatively few support piers.

Still, Rosa said, the airy look will be achieved mainly when the bridge is viewed from head on, as from a boat. It will seem much more dense when viewed from vantage points along the shore, because it will be more difficult to see the open space between the rows of trusses.

"That's when it gives itself away as a contemporary bridge trying to accommodate contemporary problems. It's really a '90s bridge," he said.

The winning engineers outlined yesterday the challenges they faced in figuring out how to accommodate all the traffic needs of the bridge and its site.

"It is extremely visible," said Robert S. O'Neil, De Leuw, Cather's president, "and it's in a beautiful area. Plus it is one of the widest drawbridges in the world."

Peter Sluszka, president of Steinman, Boynton, which designed the Mackinac Bridge connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas and is restoring the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City, said one of the biggest challenges was dealing with the Potomac's soft underwater soil, which isn't well suited to supporting heavy structures.

Steel pilings will be driven 150 feet beneath the river bottom to support the piers, he said. Some of that work is due to begin in late 2000 or early 2001. A tentative schedule calls for finishing one of the two twin spans by the winter of 2004. The project is scheduled to be complete by 2006.

Staff writer Alan Sipress contributed to this report.