Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:14:52 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: elizceleste at mindspring.com
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Wilson Bridge and the 3rd Friday
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

The Washington Post has an article on the construction on the Wilson Bridge scheduled for this weekend:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071200991.html

Relevent Highlight:

>The biggest traffic jam likely to occur during the 11-year construction of a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge will begin this Friday night and last the entire weekend while workers realign a section of the Capital Beltway, project managers said yesterday.

Lane closures and detours could back up northbound traffic on Interstate 95 in Virginia for 15 miles. They will be in place from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday while workers lay asphalt for the realigned highway section near the western end of what will become a 12-lane bridge across the Potomac River.<

But the worst of the backups probably will stretch south from Springfield, where cars heading to I-95 will be diverted to prevent tens of thousands of motorists from heading toward the old bridge, scheduled to close in 2006, when the first of the replacement spans is complete.

If the closures take place, normally moderate delays will turn monumental, project officials said. Delays could last as long as 90 minutes and considerably longer if there is a fender bender or other problem.<
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Essentially what this means is that the six mile stretch of the City of Alexandria, from the Wilson Bridge to the Springfield Intersection will be 100% unpassable over the weekend. And that section happens to include my house, and all the routes from my house to um, anywhere but Arlington.

I think, with discresion being the better part of valor, I'm going to skip 3rd friday this month. Getting to Southern MD, at 8 pm? I would probably be ok. Getting home? May kill me.

So everybody have a good time, and hopefully the lanes will be open before we go back to the next MD meeting.

All in all I'm staying home this weekend and reading Harry Potter. Which, if any of the spoilers I have now read are true? Is bound to be a very crack addled book. Crack I say.

Elizabeth, who will have a beautiful view of the beltway blockages from her living room window, and the bail out traffic block ups from the bedroom windows.