lanes, isolated from the local lanes, are used for through traffic. The bridge design allows for the remaining two lanes to be used by Washington Metro or other mass transit, though there are no current plans to do so. The consultant team for the main bridge over the Potomac River included engineers of record Parsons Transportation Group; bridge architect Miguel Rosales of Rosales + Partners; Consulting engineers were A. Morton Thomas & Associates, Inc.; Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers provided Geotechnical engineering; Subconsultants Finley McNary Engineers (piers); and Hardesty & Hanover, LLP (bascule span). Project management was provided by WSP USA, Rummel, Klepper & Kahl LLP, and URS Corporation. The northern span of the bridge also includes pedestrian and bike passage, separated from traffic by safety barriers. The path, which opened on June 6, 2009, is about wide and long, with "bump-out" areas where users can stop to observe views of Washington and Old Town Alexandria. The new spans are higher than the old bridge, high enough to allow most boats and small ships to pass underneath without having to raise the bridge and reducing the projected number of annual traffic-hindering openings from about 260 to about 60. According to a draft executive summary released in December 2022 by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation for their I-495 Southside Transit/TDM study, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge has "future accommodation for potential future rail transit." More specifically, the summary states that the Record of Decision for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge written by the Federal Highway Administration indicated that both spans of the bridge "should include four general use lanes, one high-occupancy vehicle (HOV)/ express bus/rail transit lane, and one merging/diverging lane." Also, according to the executive summary, the bridge itself "was constructed to accommodate HOV/express bus/rail transit lanes on the mainline, if determined to be needed in the future" and that "the interchanges, lanes, and medians were designed to not preclude the future conversion to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail transit use when deemed appropriate by WMATA." On December 15, 2022, NBC Washington reported that WMATA wants to build a Blue Line loop that "would run from a new, second Rosslyn station through Georgetown, cut across D.C. to Union Station, make a turn south for Navy Yard and Buzzard Point, run down to National Harbor, go across the Wilson Bridge, and link back up with the existing Metro system