Like most state highway departments, the Virginia Department of Transportation takes a lot of crap from people like me. Successes bring shrugs. Failures prompt outrage.

But on Monday night, I saw something so extraordinary that I want to credit VDOT and their partners in the Maryland Department of Transportation who together are working to rebuild the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which connects Alexandria, Virginia and Prince George County, Maryland by crossing the Potomac River.

The Wilson Bridge is one of the busiest in America, carrying as it does I-95 through traffic as well as Washington area commuters. Needless to say, the old bridge was not up to the task. Indeed, it was literally falling apart before it was taken down last year to make way for the new span.

Before the old bridge came down, I commuted each morning from my home in Fairfax County to my office at the Center for Individual Freedom in Old Town Alexandria. And each evening, I went home again.

I was lucky. I was reverse commuting. But even so, traffic around the bridge was a bear. And in the evening, traffic approaching the bridge from the Virginia side was so bad that the delays routinely extended up through the Route 1 interchange and into Old Town Alexandria, where is would snarl things for blocks in every direction.

Since I last commuted to Old Town, the project to rebuild the Wilson Bridge has progressed considerably. The first of two new spans has been completed. And the Route 1 interchange has been largely rebuilt.

On Monday, I returned to Old Town. As I zipped along the Beltway, I girded myself for my fate: Sitting in Wilson Bridge traffic at the height of the evening rush hour.

But as I approached, traffic didn’t slow. At all. Even as I pulled off onto the new Route 1 exit ramp, no one was stamping on their brakes. Only when traffic reached the threshold of the new span itself did things slow briefly. The result for Old Town was a small miracle. There were no delays at all. The long snake of traffic down Gibbon Street and up Route 1 were both nowhere to be seen. There were delays at all. For someone who sat in that morass everyday for nearly three years, it was absolutely breathtaking.

It’s damned unusual that a major highway improvement project exceeds expectations, but this one has certainly exceeded mine. Two thumbs up to the contractors and engineers who dreamed up the design and are turning it into a reality.

One final thought: If, like me, you’re worried about global warming and want to get carbon out of the air, support projects like this one. Think of how much exhaust and other pollutants will never be emitted thanks to this work. It’s extraordinary.

Cam says: Well, today at 3:15 I had to exit at Van Dorn to avoid the traffic that began at Eisenhower Avenue. Thankfully I have Sirius, so I listen to DC Traffic (Channel 152) on my way in. It’s definitely hit or miss… some days I can take the Beltway all the way down to Rt. 1. But at least 2-3 times a week I’m still taking Eisenhower Avenue into Old Town.