(Washington, DC) The District Department of Transportation invites the community to a series of meetings to help plan transportation improvements for the H Street, NE, Corridor.

The meetings will be held at the Capitol Children's Museum Auditorium, 3rd and H Streets, NE, as follows:

• Monday, September 8th 4pm-8pm
• Tuesday, September 9th 2pm-8pm
• Saturday, September 13th 11am-5pm

The existing movable barrier will allow DDOT to maintain four lanes of inbound and two lanes outbound traffic in the morning rush-hour. In the afternoon rush-hour, there will be three lanes in each direction. The sidewalk on the non-work side will be open to pedestrians and bicyclists. An additional lane adjacent to the work zone will be occupied by the contractor as the work requires.

The Roosevelt Bridge, between Arlington, Virginia and the District, is not only a crucial commuter artery for 100,000 vehicles every weekday, it is also critical for the homeland defenses of the nation's capital. It connects downtown Washington with Fort Myer, the Pentagon and other important federal installations in Virginia and provides redundant transportation capacity in case of a 9/11-type event or other emergency.

Bridges across the country share many of the problems that are affecting the Roosevelt Bridge. This national need to fix our nation's bridges was highlighted by Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton who were joined by Senator Jim Jeffords, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Congressman Don Young, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, at a July press conference at the Kennedy Center overlooking the bridge. They all urged Congress to pass and fund the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill (i.e. renewal of TEA-21) to provide funds to meet the nation's transportation needs.

For more information, please contact BILL RICE, (202)671-2004, (202)437-7787 (cell)under the DDOT's web page.