DOT chief: DC bridge problems symbolizes funding gridlock

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Monday that problems with the Arlington Memorial Bridge in the Washington, D.C. area symbolizes the inaction that has marked Congressional debates about a long-term infrastructure funding bill. 

Foxx visited the bridge on Monday with lawmakers from the D.C. area and U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis on Monday to draw attention to problems with the nation’s infrastructure he said were being exacerbated by the lack of a long-term transportation bill.  

Lawmakers passed a bill last week to prevent an interruption in the nation’s transportation spending just before a deadline that had been scheduled for May 31. They could only come up with a measure that extends the road and transit funding until July 31, however. 

{mosads}Foxx said Monday that the problems with the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which connects Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia, illustrate the consequences of Congress continuing to punt on passing a long-term transportation funding bill. 

“Since 1932, the Arlington Memorial Bridge has been a stunner.  Its classical appearance, with a series of arches spanning the Potomac River and monumental statuary on both ends, conveys strength,” he wrote in a blog post on the transportation department’s website. 

“The bridge isn’t just traversed by tourists either.  It’s a major travel route for 68,000 vehicles between Washington, DC, and Virginia every day, with key connections to major roadways on both sides,” Foxx continued. “So, when Federal Highway Administration engineers found that the steel beams supporting the bridge were corroding quicker than expected and could not be guaranteed to meet the bridge’s load, we had no choice but to begin emergency repairs last Friday, shutting down two lanes for at least the next 6 months and forcing drivers to choose gridlock or find alternate routes in a region already choked by traffic.” 

The National Park Service announced last week that a pair of lanes on the 83-year-old bridge, which serves as a major traffic artery between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, will be closed for about six months. The first westbound lane closure began last week after inspectors found signs of corrosion.

The announcement came days after Congress settled for just a two-month extension of the transportation funding measure that was scheduled to expire in May.  Lawmakers have not passed a transportation bill that last longer than two years since 2005. The current patch is a second extension of a 2012 bill that was originally scheduled to expire last September.

Foxx said Monday that the struggles to maintain the Arlington Memorial Bridge highlights the failure of Congress to pass a transportation funding bill that last longer enough to allow states to plan long-term construction projects that are badly needed. 

“Instead of a bridge symbolizing national unity, the Arlington Memorial Bridge symbolizes a different national trend,” he wrote. “For six years now, Congress has been patching together our transportation and putting off the real repairs and improvements our nation’s roads and bridges so badly need.  Thirty-three short-term actions, zero long-term solutions.  So we gathered at Memorial Bridge to say, simply, enough is enough.” 

Foxx said the problems with the Arlington Memorial Bridge and other parts of the nation’s infrastructure could be avoided if Congress would pass a six year, $478 billion transportation funding bill that has been sent to the Hill by President Obama. 

Lawmakers have largely balked at the president’s proposal because they disagree with its reliance on taxing corporate profits that are stored overseas. Republicans have said they would be open to a voluntary overseas tax proposal, but they argue that a mandatory levy would drive businesses away from the U.S. 

Foxx said Monday that he hopes Congress can use the two months they brought with the latest temporary transportation funding extension to reach an agreement on a longer measure. 

“Like transportation funding itself, multiple emergency repairs have been made on the Arlington Memorial Bridge in recent years,” he wrote.  “But I don’t know how much longer we can sustain this treasure –or our transportation funding– with band-aids. Let’s make this latest emergency the last.”