For those of you who live outside the Washington, D.C. area, the Springfield Mixing Bowl is perhaps the best monument possible to the irrationality of government traffic designers.
It earns it names by virtue of the fact that it is the point where three major highways —- Interstate 95, which just happens to be the most important North-South highway on the East Coast, Interstate 395, which is the primary highway route into Downtown Washington, D.C, and Interstate 495 a/k/a the Washington Beltway — all meet in a design that could have only been made by a government bureaucrat.
Starting way back in 1999, Virgina and the Federal Government began a multi-billion $ 676 million dollar project to redesign the interchange and make it “safer.” Well, eight years later, they claim that they’re finished:
The massive construction project designed to smooth traffic flow and reduce accidents at the Springfield Interchange, where three major highways connect and thousands of vehicles converge, has finished ahead of schedule.
“It is the biggest transportation project in the history of Virginia,” said Del. Vince Callahan, R-McLean, who helped secure funding for the $676 million undertaking.
About 430,000 motorists pass through the interchange, known as the Mixing Bowl, each day. Interstate 95, I-395 and the Beltway meet at the Mixing Bowl, which was a confusing entanglement of lane changes and exit ramps that often left motorists frazzled after a misguided turn or a close encounter with a tractor-trailer.
“People would go into the Mixing Bowl and get spun around and be spit out in the wrong direction,” said Steve Titunik, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
And, admittedly, traffic does flow smoother in some respects. Going north on 95 toward Maryland is much easier than it used to be. And, getting onto South 95 from the Alexandria area has been made alot easier since the flyover bridge opened several years ago. But, don’t kid yourself if you think this has done anything to reduce the volume of traffic.
Forget about going south on 95 anytime after about 2pm on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday in the summertime. Or anytime for that matter. And the biggest reason for that is the lack of a viable Beltway bypass for travelers who want to go north toward Baltimore. The new improvements may, probably will, make the interchange safer, but they do little to address the real problems that plague anyone who travels through there on a regular basis faces.
Update: More self-congratulations in the Washington Post.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:12 am
I live in Springfield. I wouldn’t have noticed the project’s completion had it not been for the self-congratulating orgy.
What would be a viable Beltway bypass anyway, and whose houses would be under its path? I don’t know if we have too many options.