A Transportation spokesman said the request was the department's first formal step in looking at an airline deal and was not out of the ordinary.

And those, said Dwight Langham, a transportation spokesman, were tests to make sure the lift mechanism still worked.

"We didn't get any bid," Tom Cocola, a transportation spokesman, said.

"We really haven't had any substantial weather delays in the latter part of 1998," said John Dourgarian, a transportation spokesman.

Keith Kalb, a Department of Transportation spokesman, said the critics had it wrong.

A witness helps; so does a photograph of the broken meter, said Dwight Langham, a transportation spokesman.

But Dwight Langham, a transportation spokesman, said studies indicated no significant increases in traffic volume or speed.

No formal talks have been held since last summer, and according to a United States Department of Transportation spokesman, none are scheduled.

Tom Cocola, a transportation spokesman, said that new fences in the median were causing most pedestrians to use the crosswalks.

Thomas Cocola, a Department of Transportation spokesman, welcomed the report, calling it a tool for growth.