If you live in Virginia and were one of the more than 40,000 fans who attended Stephen Strasburg’s sensational debut game for the Washington Nationals last night, you probably noticed that it was nearly impossible to get home across the river after the game. Yikes! With the arrival of warmer weather, Northern Virginia is now strangled by construction projects.
Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the “Stimulus Bill,” was enacted early last year, most of the projects it funded were not scheduled to begin until 2010. The Beltway HOT lane widening and the Dulles Metro Extension are two mega-projects that have created many traffic headaches of their own, but both were planned for decades and were fully funded before the Stimulus Bill came along.
Tired sports fans had to reckon with a diabolic combination of the 14th Street Bridge rehabilitation, the Humpback Bridge replacement on the GW Parkway, the Ohio Drive realignment which renders Memorial Bridge inaccessible, and now the repaving of I-66 which brought traffic to a crawl on the Teddy Roosevelt and Key Bridges last night, not to mention repairs to the Chain Bridge that seem to have been going on for years now.
The road projects in the Stimulus Bill were supposed to create jobs, but for all the construction, The Washington Examiner reports that Northern Virginia has nevertheless seen an increase in unemployment from a year ago. Clearly, the so-called “Stimulus” hasn’t been nearly as stimulating as its authors promised. Worse still, many smaller local roads are filled with potholes after the record snowstorms this past winter, but will not get the repairs they need because of Stimulus earmarks for specific projects.
Thanks to the Stimulus Bill, Northern Virginians who try to support the local economy by enjoying a night out on the town are now stranded in D.C. by an army of road crews. On the bright side, when this onslaught of road construction is over, Northern Virginians will have brand new bridges and roads that stretch the entire length of the Potomac inside the Beltway. After what looks to be a very long summer of endless traffic jams, we can only hope that the pain is worth it.
