[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 20, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3066-H3067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE WOODROW WILSON BRIDGE

  (Mr. DAVIS of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, later today this House will vote 
on the biggest transportation vote of the decade. The Shuster-Oberstar-
Petri-Rahall amendment takes a small slice from the tax cuts, from 
defense, from discretionary domestic spending so the American people 
can get the road and the rail improvements they have already paid for 
but are not included in the balanced budget agreement.
  This allocates an additional $13 billion for transportation over the 
next 5 years. This amendment will, as the gentlewoman from New York 
[Mrs. Kelly] said earlier, save lives. Up to 12,000 a year it will 
save, and at the same time it promotes jobs and it builds a strong 
economy.
  For Northern Virginia, which I represent, where we are choked in 
traffic, this will give us the money to help in rebuilding the Woodrow 
Wilson Bridge before it falls into the Potomac River. It will give 
Virginia our fair share of transportation dollars. We got back less 
than 80 cents for every dollar we spent under the previous 
authorization. Without the additional dollars this amendment provides, 
fair allocations for donor States like Virginia become next to 
impossible.
  Let us balance the budget, let us fix the broken transportation 
system, let us support the Shuster-Oberstar amendment.
  Mr. SPEAKER, despite the nation's highest rate of carpooling and a 
national ranking of third in the number of commuters that use

[[Page H3067]]

transit, the region has the second longest mean commuting time in the 
country. The dollar cost of congestion in the region is the highest in 
the country based on wasted time and fuel--and it is getting worse. I 
know this hardly comes as a shock to Members that live and travel 
around the region, but these figures dramatize the desperate need for 
major transportation improvements.
  No single element of the regional transportation system is more 
critical than the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge which crosses the 
Potomac River on interstate 95. Anyone that drives in this region knows 
that a problem at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge can create gridlock 
throughout the entire Washington region. This 35-year-old bridge is the 
only federally owned bridge in the National Highway System.
  Built to carry 75,000 vehicles per day, the bridge now carries 
152,000 vehicles per day and 17,000 heavy trucks each day. The heavy 
traffic load on the bridge has shortened the bridges useful life span 
to roughly 10 years. If action is not taken to replace this vital 
bridge, this region and every driver or trucker trying to go north or 
south through the Mid-Atlantic on I-95 could be affected. We are 
talking about rerouting truck traffic or reducing the number of lanes 
on the bridge to extend the life of the bridge. The traffic and 
economic impact on this region of reducing the already congested 
traffic flow on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge would be devastating.
  The Federal Highway Administration has estimated that it will cost 
somewhere around $1.7 billion to replace this federally-owned bridge.
  This is one project critical to my region. I know many Members have 
their own essential regional transportation projects. We need the 
Shuster-Oberstar-Petri-Rahall amendment to the budget resolution if we 
are going to get the money desperately needed to accomplish these 
projects of national importance. I urge all Members to support this 
critical amendment.

                          ____________________