Woodrow Wilson Bridge Replacement

Client: Maryland State Highway Administration

Location: Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC

Services: Structural, highway, traffic, and geotechnical engineering; environmental mitigation; hydrologic and hydraulic analysis; underwater inspection; subsurface utility engineering; landscape architecture

With more than 200,000 travelers crossing the Potomac River on I-95/I-495 each day, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is a critical link in the East Coast interstate highway system. The 90-foot-wide drawbridge, built in 1961 to accommodate six lanes of traffic, has become a bottleneck for motorists driving around the nation’s capital. Recognizing the need to replace the aging structure, Congress authorized nearly $2 billion in federal funding, supported by contributions from Maryland and Virginia, to build a 12-lane replacement bridge, 234 feet wide and 1.15 miles long, with 70 feet of vertical clearance over the shipping channel.

With eight lanes of traffic feeding onto the existing bridge, planners selected the 12-lane design to handle projected increases in traffic and accommodate two “reserve” lanes for high-occupancy or transit vehicles. The final design reflects more than 12 years of input from engineers, political leaders, citizens, and environmental groups, all concerned with building a structure to meet urgent transportation needs while minimizing impacts to the environment.

The monumental task of reconstructing the bridge required modifying the approach interchanges on both shores and developing environmental mitigation plans. KCI Technologies, Inc., is serving as the lead consulting engineer providing highway and bridge designs for the I-95/I-495 & MD 210 Interchange on the Maryland side of the river and also as a subconsultant on the team designing improvements for the I-95/U.S. Route 1 Interchange in Virginia. While project engineers designed structural and highway plans that minimized impacts on the river and adjacent lands, KCI’s environmental scientists conducted mitigation studies and developed innovative approaches for restoring natural sites outside of the project area, in cooperation with State agencies and the project’s general engineering consultant, Potomac Crossing Consultants (PCC).

Interchange Designs—In October 1998, KCI began preliminary designs for the $100 million MD 210 Interchange Project, located two miles east of the bridge. The project involves replacing four bridges, constructing three new bridges and retaining walls, and widening existing roadway. Throughout the project, KCI has worked closely with representatives from the Federal Highway Administration; the Bridge and Highway Divisions of the Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA); the design team working on the I-95/I-495 & I-295 Interchange (JMT/WRA); and PCC.

Environmental Solutions—KCI began its environmental mitigation studies for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Replacement Project in February 2000, providing wetland mitigation and fish passage design services for several sites in Virginia and Maryland over the next few years. In Virginia, KCI provided tidal mitigation and streambank stabilization/riparian buffer enhancement design services for seven sites in the watershed. In Maryland, KCI provided wetland mitigation and/or streambank stabilization design services for four sites: Anacostia East, Bladensburg Marina, Tuxedo Road, and Cabin Branch. In addition, KCI designed an innovative approach for removing 24 fish blockages in five stream systems (Rock Creek, Northwest Branch, Sligo Creek, Indian Creek, and Little Paint Branch), including a new fish ladder around a historic dam in Rock Creek Park.

KCI’s approach to designing fish passages is unlike any other in the industry. In the past, a firm may have traversed an individual blockage from a stream without modeling the very specific requirements for fish or the potential impacts on the rest of the system. For this project, however, KCI created a scientific model that factored in field data on fish physiology and behavior, stream substrate, and water velocity and depth to help replicate unique, natural features. By using no-maintenance, attractive natural solutions in the restoration design, KCI was able to mitigate multiple fish blockages associated with man-made development and shift the stream system in a positive direction.

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