Yesterday’s dedication ceremony to celebrate the completion of the second span of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge didn’t go off without a hitch — unfortunately.
U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, elder statesman that he is, grabbed a huge wrench and tightened the last of 800,000 bolts to signal the completion — twice.
The Virginia Republican twice exclaimed “start your engines” for the countless commuters who must use the bridge every day. But no one was going anywhere fast.
“Ssssttttuuuucccckkkk,” one harried commuter drawled on WTOP Radio’s talk-back line.
Most Beltway commuters creeping across the Capital Beltway river crossing were either braking or idling in an 8- to 10-mile backup, while politicians patted themselves on the back during the dull and disorganized 11 a.m. dedication.
Mr. Warner, who at least thanked the taxpayers for their contribution toward the construction of the bridge, repeatedly shouted his hyperbolic directive because most of the politicos seated on the white folding chairs lining the virgin concrete couldn”t hear him above the horn blasts of angry, gridlocked motorists.
Truckers and commuters burned up $4-a-gallon gasoline for hours in the kind of maddening traffic backups that the new $2.4 billion bridge was designed to eliminate.
Then someone suggested that commuters should honk their horns to show their displeasure at the event organizers’ ill-timed scheduling of the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The only car that could cross the new span yesterday belonged to the president for whom it is named.
Huh? Motorists won”t be able to use the new deck for weeks, and it will be months before all 12 lanes are available.
Honk if you want to fire a bureaucratic bozo.
What else to label the policy wonk who decided to hold a dedication of the second — the second — span of the Wilson Bridge on a weekday morning? They ought to know that this is one of the busiest roadways on the East Coast and the least little hiccup, even during off-peak hours, causes a ripple effect.
Why did the politicians even need to toot their own horns about a construction project that is not complete and, by the way, most of them had nothing to do with in the first place?
They should have waited until the weekend, preferably mid-morning on a Sunday during the tele-babble pundits” hour.
Want to know just how out of touch some of these public servants are? A clueless U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said, “I hope the honks are from people who are happy with the new bridge.”
In what universe? Does she never travel I-95, I-485, I-66 or I-270?
Neither Maryland Gov. Martin O”Malley, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine nor D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who was not present, had a nickel in the barrel of billions of dollars that went into planning, negotiating or lobbying for the new bridge.
Only Mr. Warner really deserved the accolades that organizers were throwing around like tokens on the Dulles Toll Road.
Speaking of tolls, Mr. O”Malley had the temerity to suggest that if those honking their horns were unhappy with the hullabaloo, “Imagine if we had turned [the bridge] over to Bear Stearns and they”d be paying $7 to cross it.”
Imagine? Politicians are generally not the imaginative type. In fact, after acknowledging state workers present at the silly dedication, Mr. O”Malley advised them to “please apply for a promotion or a raise after this program.”
Not to pass up a chance to use the bridge podium as a platform for his ill-fated transportation funding package, Mr. Kaine gushed that he was going to “touch the bridge to get a little of that Washington magic.”
The Wilson Bridge project demonstrates that government entities working together can find solutions if they “have courage and are willing to compromise.”
Mr. Kaine will need more than courage to get the compromises he needs even from his own party when the General Assembly meets next month in the special session he called to determine which increases in taxes, either gasoline or sales, they will enact just to pay for road maintenance projects.
“Virginia has underinvested in transit and rail,” Mr. Kaine said, adding that the commonwealth needs to be a better investor.
Honk. Honk. This region is being choked economically by traffic gridlock, and it”s no secret that this congestion is a major cause of Washington motorists earning the distinction of being the fifth-rudest drivers in the country. My only surprise is that this region didn”t score higher.
Politicians all owe an apology and a promise that these kinds of scheduling snafus will not occur in the future.
As the unnecessary dedication came to a close, the T.C. Williams High School choir appropriately sang, “Let Freedom Ring.” No doubt commuters stuck in gridlock yesterday were screaming “free us from bureaucratic bozos.”
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