Interstate 95's new Woodrow Wilson Bridge should be fully open for traffic by the end of the month, VDOT says.

With Virginia Sen. John W. Warner turning the final bolt, officials dedicated the $2.5 billion structure's second span across the Potomac River in Northern Virginia yesterday.

"In many ways," said state Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer, "the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project averts a transportation disaster."

But yesterday's ceremony spawned its own traffic jam.

As workers set up tents and raised giant American flags on the new span, rubbernecking commuters on the other span stopped to gawk, and backups stretched about 7 miles in Maryland.

The old six-lane bridge was one of the country's worst bottlenecks, officials said. Completed in 1961, that bridge was designed to accommodate 75,000 vehicles a day but ended up carrying nearly three times that number.

When fully opened, the 1.1-mile-long bridge will carry 12 lanes of traffic between Virginia and Maryland. By 2020, traffic is expected to reach nearly 300,000 vehicles a day.

A mix of funds from the federal government, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia paid for the bridge. The largest contribution -- $1.5 billion -- came from the federal government thanks to Warner, Homer said.

Virginia put up $635 million for the double-span drawbridge.

Work began on the bridge in 2000, and the first six-lane span opened in 2006. The whole project will wrap up in 2013 with the completion of the Telegraph Road interchange in Alexandria.

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge project, which also included building two major highway interchanges in Virginia and two in Maryland, recently won the 2008 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the group's highest honor.

The award singled out the project's innovative and extensive environmental program and its sensitivity to travelers and local communities.
Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.