11th Street Bridge Presentation

There is not much new in this presentation to ANC6D about the 11th Street Bridge. It will still include a wider Active Transportation Lane on the downstream side and still feature bike lanes on the approaches.

On this image, you can see the Riverwalk Trail (under the bridge and through the trees in the foreground), the ATL and a small plaza that sticks out into the water between the bridge and the Navy Yard.

And in this you get a view of the ATL which will include two overlooks using the old bridge's piers.

It won't be separated from traffic like on the 14th Street or Wilson Bridge. This is because it's designed to be a neighborhood street, not a highway. The post are the catenary for the streetcar (you can see the tracks on the rigth of the lower rendering).

Though the freeway bridge will open in about a year, the bridge with the ATL won't open until 2013.

Still no word on what will happend to the existing upstream bridge. I say keep it open as a park (add some hoops and a street hockey rink, very nice).

Comments

[Keroicap]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have bike lanes on the bridge and narrow the sidewalk somewhat to compensate? If this is really supposed to be a neighborhood street, let's design it like that. Making cyclists do some complicated maneuver to get onto the bridge sidewalk is unnecessary and annoying.

[washcycle]

There was talk of bike lanes, but I'm not sure why they weren't included. But, biking in the travel lanes will be allowed.

[Froggie]

I believe the existing inbound/upstream bridge will have to be removed because part of it is within the final footprint of the new bridge. Slide 8 on JDLand's PDF highlights this where it'll cross O St. Also, the map on Slide 20 suggests that the Anacostia end of the existing upstream bridge is area that'll be required for the new ramp from SB 295 to the bridge.

[Froggie]

Then there's the red X's pasted on the existing bridge on Slide 20. That definitely tells me that the plan is to remove the existing bridge.

[washcycle]

Froggie, last year at the press conference for the start of the project they said that they didn't need to tear down that part. I think at some point both bridges will be operational, similar to the Wilson Bridge. People asked, and they said Klein hadn't made a decision about that bridge, but that they could leave the span if they wanted to.

[Froggie]

What's commonly done (and is in fact being done on the Beltway) is they A) build part of the new bridge, B) open it and close the existing bridge, C) tear down existing bridge, D) finish building new bridge in the place occupied by the old bridge.

The diagrams (which to be fair are more recent than last year's press conference) make it clear to me that at least part of the existing upstream bridge (if not all of it) will be torn down.