June opening scheduled for new Wilson Bridge

The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge is scheduled to open in mid-June.

It's the first of a two-span construction project that will double the number of interstate traffic lanes crossing the Potomac River by 2008.

Beginning on a Saturday in June, with the exact date to be announced later, traffic on the Capital Beltway's Outer Loop will switch to the new bridge, according to a news release from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project.

Five or six weeks later, traffic from the Beltway's Inner Loop will join the new bridge.

The old, six-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge will be demolished.

With the opening of the new bridge, the $2.4 billion project is more than halfway complete.

The new bridge has the same number of lanes as the old bridge--six--but it has full-width shoulders, something the old bridge lacked.

This means disabled vehicles can move out of the traffic lanes, preventing delays, and emergency vehicles can circumvent traffic.

A second Woodrow Wilson Bridge is scheduled to open in summer 2008. When it is finished, six more traffic lanes will be available.

The Inner Loop traffic will travel one bridge and the Outer Loop traffic will cross another, for a total of six lanes in each direction.

Currently, about 195,000 vehicles travel the Woodrow Wilson Bridge every day.

The new bridges are also 20 feet higher than the existing span, which will reduce the number of drawbridge openings from 260 a year to about 65.

When the bridge opened in 1961, it was carrying 75,000 cars a day. By 2020, project estimates predict 295,000 cars will cross the bridge daily.

--Kelly Hannon

Quantico exercises may bring increase in noise

Residents living along State Route 610 and elsewhere in North Stafford may hear increased noise from training exercises at Quantico Marine Corps Base today through Friday.

Explosions may be heard between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. today, and between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. tomorrow and Friday.

The Marines advise residents that weather conditions can impact the noise level as well as the extent of vibrations felt as a result of the exercises.

For additional information, contact the base's public affairs office at 703/784-2741.

--Pamela Gould