JDLand has an update on her website and it sounds like mostly good news for cyclists
The new bridge will have 20-foot-wide sidewalks on each side. (The cable stayed swing bridge would have had just one pedestrian/bike
path, 16 feet wide, in the middle of the bridge, surrounded by six
lanes of traffic.)
The intersection of South Capitol Street and M Street will become an at-grade intersection (no more underpass for through traffic). ANC chair Andy Litsky expressed great concern about how this could make the intersection even more dangerous than it already is, to which the DDOT team replied that the reconfiguration should make it safer.
There will be modifications to South Capitol's interchange with the SE/SW Freeway, with the replacement of the ramp that begins at I Street with an at-grade intersection underneath the freeway that would have two left-turn lanes to a new ramp. With the existing ramp removed, the intersection at South Capitol and I would also be reconfigured.
The northern section of South Capitol Street will match the reconfigured portion between N Street and Potomac Avenue, as a six-lane boulevard with a median and wide sidewalks
The intersection of South Capitol Street and M Street will become an at-grade intersection (no more underpass for through traffic). ANC chair Andy Litsky expressed great concern about how this could make the intersection even more dangerous than it already is, to which the DDOT team replied that the reconfiguration should make it safer.
There will be modifications to South Capitol's interchange with the SE/SW Freeway, with the replacement of the ramp that begins at I Street with an at-grade intersection underneath the freeway that would have two left-turn lanes to a new ramp. With the existing ramp removed, the intersection at South Capitol and I would also be reconfigured.
The northern section of South Capitol Street will match the reconfigured portion between N Street and Potomac Avenue, as a six-lane boulevard with a median and wide sidewalks
All of which should make South Capitol more bikeable. Unfortunately, the idea to keep the old bridge for bike/ped uses is unworkable.
Commissioners McBee and Moffatt asked as they have in the past about
whether the existing bridge could be kept as a pedestrian/bike-only
bridge, but DDOT explained that since the swing span would continue to
need to be opened for river traffic, the cost of maintaining the old
bridge just isn't feasible.
I also think if the bridge is going to connect in to the Shepherd Branch it will have to be a retrofit.
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