11th Street Bridges Design-Build to Begin Soon

DDOT issued an RFP for the 11th Street Bridges Project last month. Since then there has been a lot of talk about it from several sides (some opposed, some for, and some suing to stop it).

[Personally I have mixed feelings on the project but am mostly for it as the new bridge will allow for transit, better biking/pedestrian connections and it replaces inefficient highway lanes with efficient ones. Kathleen Linehan Penney, Chief Engineer for DC makes a compelling case in the Capitol Hill Rag including:

2. The 11th Street Bridges replacement project will change the way the Southeast Freeway operates between 11th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. The connection will be eliminated by the 11th Street project. Conversion of this connection to a boulevard will be done in the future by DDOT. That section of roadway will no longer operate as a freeway.
3. There are four freeway lanes in each direction today: two connecting to the 11th St. Bridges and two connecting to the Southeast freeway spur and Barney Circle. When the project is complete there will be three freeway lanes in each direction connecting the South East Freeway and the Anacostia Freeway and no freeway lanes to Barney Circle. Thus there is a net decrease of one freeway lane in each direction.
4. Traffic increases on I-395 and the Southeast Freeway will result from decreased traffic on I-295, the Sousa Bridge, Whitney Young Bridge, Benning Road Bridge, Minnesota Ave, and Good Hope Rd. This is consistent with the project goal to reduce the volume of freeway traffic that spills onto the neighborhood streets due to current traffic patterns.

I'd be a lot more "in" if it came with a road diet on New York Avenue, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards]

Anyway, the bridge that will be built starting this year (with some stimulus money) is unchanged since the preferred alternative (Big pdf) came out last summer. That alternative built two bridges, one local and one freeway. It was not the alternative preferred by cyclists as the report noted (It doesn't appear that WABA has taken a position yet).

Pedestrian and bicycle groups expressed a preference for Build Alternative IV because the proposed cross-section over the river incorporated a 14-foot multi-use trail adjacent to local travel lanes on both structures. Other build alternatives incorporated a total multi-use trail width of 20 feet adjacent to local travel lanes on the downstream structure only.

In addition, Build Alternative IV would give cyclists views of the rivers on both sides.

But all is not lost. The contract is being issued as Design-Build and as Tommy Wells' blog points out

OCP reports that they will continue to accept public input in the "Design-Build" phase of the project. OCP stated "the public will be able to review and comment on these specifications and plans as they are developed by the Design-Build team. In fact there is a public engagement requirement in the Statement of Work and each "shortlisted" team has a subcontractor selected to work directly with DDOT and the community to inform the design phase.

The current design has one 14 foot Active Transportation Lane (ATL)* from 11th and N SE to Anacostia Drive SE (big blue line on picture) and a 6 foot ATL from 11th and N SE to MLK and Good Hope Road SE. Good Hope Road would no longer connect to Anacostia Drive. This would be a step up from what cyclists have now, but I would propose two changes.

• Increase the 6 foot lane (smaller blue line on picture) to at least 12 feet. I predict that the lane that connects directly to the Anacostia neighborhood will be the one that gets more use, 6 feet is too narrow.
• Build an ATL on the upstream side (red line) of the freeway bridge from 11th and M to the bike/pedestrian bridge over the Anacostia Freeway at Anacostia High School. This would shorten the distance for anyone traveling to Fairlawn and give better views of the river.

*I prefer this term, that I just made up, to the "multi-use trail" because trails make it sound like recreation and that's not all that this is about.

Comments

[Jack]

Hey, great name -- ATL! Any other nominees? Biped lane (we're all bipeds, right?), human powered lane, etc.

[Jonathan Krall]

I'm liking the Active Transportation Lane idea--fits in with the push for "active transportation" by the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong, Rails to Trails Conservancy, etc.