A Plea for Westbound on E

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

When Constitution Avenue floods, as it did recently, there is no westbound route in the city until I Street!

I understand the security reasons for closing Pennsylvania Avenue, but fail to understand why E Street behind the White House had to be changed from two-way traffic to one-way eastbound.

Do bombers only travel eastbound?

If a way could be figured out to reopen E Street westbound, it would make downtown driving a little saner.

NAOMI FREEMAN

Bethesda

Good point. The city's chief traffic engineer, Gary Burch, says the city is considering doing just that.

E Street was changed to one-way eastbound when Pennsylvania Avenue was closed because westbound traffic on E Street had to use State Place to cross 17th Street and continue west on New York Avenue, which turns back into E Street at 18th Street (Got that?). State Place cuts behind the back corner of the White House grounds, and it was feared that might be too close for security comfort, Burch explained.

Now there are constrictive islands on E Street approaching 17th Street that would have to be removed to restore the street to two-way traffic. Burch said he knows of no objection by the Secret Service, and the city is studying a way to reconfigure the E Street approach to 17th Street that might make it possible to reopen the street to two-way traffic.

That would be a nice gesture to the populace since federal officials took away the major east-west road in the city when they closed Pennsylvania Avenue.