also boosted by growth in the Washington metropolitan area and increases in suburb-to-suburb commuting. Because housing costs in Prince George's County, Maryland, are much lower than in Northern Virginia—which saw enormous job growth in recent decades—tens of thousands of workers commute daily over the bridge, a situation not anticipated when it was constructed. After the highway on both sides of the bridge was widened to eight lanes, the six-lane bridge became a daily bottleneck as heavy traffic slowed in order to funnel into fewer lanes. Two incidents demonstrated this. On November 11, 1987, a snowstorm snarled traffic; many commuters ran out of gas and spent the night in their vehicles on the bridge. In November 1998, the bridge was closed for several hours during the afternoon rush hour when Ivin L. Pointer engaged police in a seven-hour standoff, creating traffic backups. (Pointer jumped off the bridge, but survived the fall.) Replacement bridge Construction Maryland, Virginia, and federal highway officials had been confronting the problems and exploring alternatives for many years. After considerable study and public debate, officials chose a plan that would double the capacity and increase the height of the drawbridge to reduce the frequency of openings. The new bridge would include two side-by-side drawbridges with a total of 12 lanes and of vertical navigational clearance at the draw span. The project also included an extensive redesign and reconstruction of the Capital Beltway as it approached the new bridge from the Maryland and Virginia sides. Construction began on the replacement facilities and approaches in 1999. Bridge construction began in October 2000 with the commencement of a dredging contract. On May 17, 2001, the Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA) issued notice to proceed for the foundations contract. The preconstruction conference for the bridge superstructure contract was held on September 11, 2001. The events of the day, including the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the nearby Pentagon, caused the evacuation of the bridge foundation construction crews and disrupted the preconstruction meeting. On December 16, 2001, MSHA received only one bid (which was more than 70 percent above the engineer's estimate), and the bid was ultimately rejected. In total, the work was executed by 26 prime contractors and 260 subcontractors. The majority of the highway project was completed by 2009, and the upgraded Telegraph Road interchange was completed in early 2013. The Wilson Bridge project received numerous awards, including four