I've written pretty extensively about the new Wilson Bridge. Here I covered the Virginia side and here the Maryland side (Technically part of the bridge is in D.C. so it barely makes it into this wish list. I dream that somewhere on the bridge - especially on the bike/ped lane - will be markers that show where you enter and exit D.C.)
The Washington Street deck is already open. The second span of the Wilson Bridge with the bikeway should open this upcoming summer. The connection to Route 1 is complete, but the interchange is not. I suspect that bike/ped bridge will open when the interchange work is done, also this upcoming summer. And the Telegraph Road to Eisenhower Avenue bridge construction should start in 2008 and end in 2011. It will all be
quite grand.
But as I pointed out the bridge isn't complete. Mainly it doesn't connect to the north side of the Beltway in Maryland. Ideally (1) a connection would be made from the Beltway deck north along Rosalie Island and then across the Oxon Cove Bridge to Perimeter Road (see this map). (2) A second connection would connect under the Oxon Cove Bridge to the Oxon Hill Farm bike trail.
I asked DDOT about this and they seemed not so concerned that this massive project would not provide bike connectivity to the District. They told me that some Maryland activist was working on it. Well, surely that's all that's needed.
In addition (3) a connection from the Heritage trail to the River Ridge Estates neighborhood seems to make so much common sense that I wonder how it was left off.
I believe that for now, we are left with the hope that once the bridge opens, people will ask why they can't use it to easily connect to D.C., River Ridge Estates and Oxon Hill Farm.
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