Like A Bridge Over Troubled Commuters, Will The Airport Authory Be There?

The Reston Citizens Association has written a letter to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the group that occasionally oversees Dulles and Reagan National when it's not busy planning a Particleboard Beltway through Loudoun County or hiking tolls on the Toll Road, asking the authority to keep the door open for additional bridges spanning North and South Reston.

When the Dulles Access Road split Reston in two, the community suffered a body blow. The addition of the Toll Road further separated the north and the south halves of our community. With the advent of metrorail comes the possibility of increasing the number of bridges connecting north and south Reston. This is because current transportation infrastructure cannot support the increased population and number of jobs in future transportation-oriented development close to Reston’s three stations and along the Dulles corridor. Obvious ways to alleviate traffic congestion are to supply additional bridges and/or tunnels, particularly near the Reston stations.

Such bridges and tunnels, whether for pedestrians, bicycles or vehicles would serve not only the success of rail in Reston, but the re-connecting of our two halves. They are also very costly and are not likely to be funded in the near future. In the interests of optimal town planning, RCA urges MWAA not to build anything into the Dulles Rail Project that could preclude future bridges and tunnels.

Better change "tunnels" to "underpasses," lest you provoke Dear Leader's wrath!

Actually, we're somewhat shocked that RCA even needed to write this letter, as it's a given that more bridges are needed before righteous massively dense urban redevelopment can occur along both sides of the Toll Road. Otherwise, it'll take us hours to get to the new Cheesecake Factory! But the same folks who thought that building more roads in Loudoun County at the expense of mass transit is a good idea probably need a good kick in the pants common-sense reminder every now and then.

RCA also supports the idea of future "air rights" buildings constructed over the Toll Road, which isn't a bad idea at all -- assuming those buildings aren't put right where the additional bridges need to go.