Norton Says Troubling Report Increases Urgency for Regional Strategy to Secure Funding for a New Arlington Memorial Bridge

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that the national capital region’s members, including not only House Members, but especially its four Senators, must devise a joint strategy to secure funding to fully replace the Arlington Memorial Bridge after a recent Federal Highway Administration inspection found that the bridge will need a major overhaul or be forced to close in 2021. Norton said that last year’s surface five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill provides the National Park Service (NPS), which owns and operates Memorial Bridge, with $268 million for 2016 for all of NPS’ transportation needs across the nation, but that amount would barely cover the estimated $250 million it will cost to rebuild the Memorial Bridge. The new transportation bill initially contained no increase in funding from 10 years ago, but Norton and other Members got a small increase by reducing the length of the reauthorization from six years to five years. Norton said that regional members of the House and Senate will need to work together to help NPS secure funding from the $800 million available annually through the new Nationally Significant Fright and Highway Projects competition grant program, which Norton got included in the surface transportation bill. She said NPS could use that grant funding to cover up to 80% of the estimated $250 million it will cost to repair Memorial Bridge. Norton said in light of the need for a new bridge, it would be a waste to fund another emergency interim strategy or to incrementally rebuild the bridge over multiple phases.

“At this point, nothing short of a coordinated regional strategy to rebuild Memorial Bridge is feasible,” Norton said. “If we do not act now, we are seeing the beginning of the end for Memorial Bridge, which is dissolving in plain sight into the Potomac River. This bridge, more than any other, is not just a regional bridge. It is the gateway to our nation’s capital from Virginia and the South, and was once a symbol of our nation’s strength. The region needs to work with NPS to ensure it applies for the competitive grant funding for which Memorial Bridge appears to qualify.”