11th Street Bridges Assessment Digested

By Jacqueline Dupree
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ballpark and Beyond is from Jacqueline Dupree's blog on development in Near Southeast Washington, an area between Capitol Hill and the Anacostia River that is being transformed by the construction of the Nationals baseball stadium.

The 11th Street Bridges Environmental Impact Statement has been completed, and it identifies a "preferred alternative" from four initial designs for reconfiguring the bridges, one that would cost $465 million and take about five years to complete.

Read the report, which is hundreds of pages long, or its summary at http://www.11thstreetbridgeseis.com. Hard copies are available at public libraries in Southeast and Southwest and at the office of D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). Here's a summary:

¿ Two bridges would be built on the alignments of the existing bridges. The piers would be reused but would have to be widened to support new wider bridge decks.

¿ The city would build two ramps on the east side of the Anacostia River, providing access at last to the northbound Anacostia Freeway from the Southeast-Southwest Freeway and to the freeway from the southbound Anacostia Freeway.

The upstream bridge would be dedicated to freeway traffic, and the downstream bridge, known officially as the Officer Kevin J. Welsh Memorial Bridge, would handle local traffic, including paths for bicyclists and pedestrians. It could also accommodate a proposed light rail system in the future. The two bridges still would have 12 lanes total.

In Anacostia, access to the bridges from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Good Hope Road and 13th Street SE would be reconfigured, and a new exit ramp would improve access to Anacostia Park from the downstream bridge for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

In Near Southeast, many ramps would be reconfigured, with the ramps currently at N Street moved one block north, to M Street. There would also be new ramps to get on and off the Southeast Freeway at 11th Street, which would be feasible because the new freeway design eliminates the lanes running directly to and from the Pennsylvania Avenue/Barney Circle interchange.

They would be replaced by a "Southeast Freeway Boulevard" starting at 11th Street, which would be completed by the District Department of Transportation in a separate project.

As for the impact of the reconfigured bridges on the two historic buildings used by the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association on the west side of the river, the report says the preferred reconfiguration plans "will not require the whole or partial demolition of either of the two ACBA buildings," as one of the initial design alternatives had presented as a possibility. Boathouse operations would have to be relocated during bridge construction, but the report says DDOT is committed to keeping them running during this time and will provide temporary structures on a Washington Gas-owned lot a few hundred feet to the north.

The report says the Virginia Avenue Park at Ninth Street and Virginia Avenue SE would not be affected by the bridge project.

The public comment period extends through Nov. 20. The report does not mention when construction could begin.

Bids Solicited for Capper Lots

Tucked deep in The Post's classifieds late last week were solicitations to build three temporary surface parking lots in the footprint of the old Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg public housing complex. The bid invitations are for 1) site grading, storm water systems and paving, and 2) lighting installation.

Proposals are due Oct. 26 to D.C. Housing Enterprises, a subsidiary of the D.C. Housing Authority.

The lots total nearly 234,000 square feet and are in two locations: the blocks bounded by Second, I, Third and L streets SE east of Canal Park, and the site of the old Arthur Capper Senior building at Sixth and L streets SE, which is scheduled to be torn down by the end of the year.

About 670 and 720 spaces will be created in the three lots, which are being built to help ease the expected ballpark parking crunch. They were approved earlier this year under a zoning ruling saying the parking lots can last no more than five years; they also will be open for non-baseball use.

The seniors building site is eventually going to become home to a 500,000-square-foot office and retail development by Forest City Enterprises, and the blocks lining Canal Park are destined to become mixed-income residential buildings as part of Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg's redevelopment.

Jacqueline Dupree, a Post staff member and Ward 6 resident, has been tracking changes in the area since 2003. For updates and links to documents and sites mentioned here, go tohttp://www.jdland.com/dc.