For a while now, DC has been trying to figure out what to do with the federally-transferred Poplar Point, a large plot of land on the east side of the Anacostia River. There were plans for a soccer stadium and a search for a developer and then they had to start all over again. GreaterGreaterWashington has a critique of the three new proposed alternatives.
From a cycling stand-point they're largely similar. They all create a trail that parallels the river as part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. They all create several bike routes through the 70 acres of park. They all create two new crossings of I-295 at W Street and Chicago Street. But there are some unique aspects to each alteternative.
Alternative 1 has the biggest difference in the form of a pedestrian bridge from the end of 1st Street SE on the west of the river to the actual 'point' at Poplar Point. This is somewhat along the lines of what Vincent Gray proposed last year. Neither 2 or 3 have this. I wonder how the bridge would work, since it needs to allow for ship traffic to the Navy Yard. Otherwise, the different aspect is that the Chicago Street crossing is a bike/ped bridge and the W Street crossing is a road.
Alternative 2 has the opposite configuration from Alternative 1, with Chicago as a road and W as a bike/ped bridge
Alternative 3 has two roads for Chicago and W.
So, not much to fight about from a cyclist standpoint - they all seem to meet the needs of the bike plan - but there are plenty of other issues of import that GGW goes into.
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