DOT chief to visit DC bridge to protest highway patch

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is planning to visit the Arlington Memorial Bridge that connects Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia on Monday to protest the lack of long term funding for U.S. infrastructure. 

Lawmakers passed a bill to prevent an interruption in the nation’s transportation spending just before a deadline that had been scheduled for May 31. 

The measure only extends the road and transit funding until July 31, however. 

Foxx has said that short-term transportation funding measures are limiting states’ ability to plan long-term construction projects. 

Congress has not passed a transportation bill that last longer than two years since 2005. The current patch is an extension of a 2012 bill that was originally scheduled to expire last September. 

Lawmakers adopted to pass an eight-month extension last summer that led to this year’s Memorial Day transportation funding showdown. 

Lawmakers who represent parts of the Washington, D.C. area have complained about lane closures on the Memorial Bridge that they say will greatly hamper traffic in the nation’s capital region.