New Anacostia River Crossing leaves off critical connection

WABA reports on their blog about the new 11th Street Bridge

the finalized bridge will not directly connect the Riverwalk Trail on both sides of the river to each other. This is a failure.

I remember asking several times of DDOT if the direct connection that existed on the old bridge would be reproduced on the new one and I was always told that it would. And it was included in the FEIS.

Planning for the new bridge began when DDOT completed a Final Environmental Impact Statement in October 2007. The FEIS includes a direct connection between the Riverwalk Trail and the local bridge (see page 60). DDOT chose a design-build construction process to speed up project delivery and stay within a constrained budget.

And the new detour is non-trivial. 

In the project’s current state, bicyclists coming south from the Ward 7 and Maryland (via the new Kenilworth Garden Trail section) wishing to get to Capitol Hill will have an extra and unnecessary route to the bridge. Traveling south along the Riverwalk Trail, trail users will have to bike or walk on-street along Good Hope Road into Anacostia. Then, they will have to turn left at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road onto 11th Street towards the bridge. This circuitous route adds an additional one-third mile of walking or biking to access the bridge from the Riverwalk Trail. The actual distance between the Riverwalk Trail and the local bridge sidewalk/bikepath is about 200 feet.

DDOT isn't giving a good answer as to why the trail connection will not be included

When asked about why the trail connection was not being built, two answers were given. The DDOT representative said the previous trail connection on the old bridge was “not ADA compliant,” so it wouldn’t be replaced. And when pressed on the fact that the FEIS includes the connection, project manager Pete McDermott said DC Water was planning to dig in the area, so no connection would be built.

Comments

[antibozo]

Sigh.

[Read Scott Martin]

So close, so far away... on the plus side, traffic in that area should be calmer and the visuals better with the new grid. But what a disappointment...

[dcgent]

WABA has an update from DOT, which says there will be a dedicated connecting trail but waterworks construction will force a temporary detour connection. Doesn't sound as bad as feared