Tuesday, November 24, 2015

CUA Brookland Corridor Chock Continued ...

new demolition specials upon the northbound un-built D.C. B&O Route I-95 right of way,
with more being planned

see:  http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/01/choking-dc-b-grand-arci-95-corridor.html

looking northwest from corner of Kearney and 9th Street - 2 projects:
 in foreground- Townhouses at 3300-3314
and
in background - Office building at 3350 - currently under construction


New buildings now being constructed and planned along the east side of the B&O corridor and west of 9th Street NE, northward from Kearney to Lawrence Streets - directly in the path of D.C. B&O I-95 that had been canceled as the result of the 1960s era political planning manipulations.


Previously posted at this blog about this misguided development thrust:

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2013/12/cua-chock-continued.html


http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/06/wmata-to-continue-to-push-corridor-chock.html

The lots had been property of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Administration (WMATA), which after decades of letting the land sit, has embarked upon a development frenzy, offering such parcels for sale for sale for development.  This is despite the intrinsic utility of these lots for future improvements to this vital transportation corridor which is the sole northern radial grade separated transport corridor within the northern portion of Washington, D.C.

http://www.wmata.com/business/joint_development_opportunities/Brookland%20Vacant%20Parcels%20Invitation%20for%20Bids%20%285-12-2015%29.pdf



This map from a May 2015 WMATA offering indicates a parcel just north of Lawrence Street, plus one to the south centered upon Kearney Street.  The WMATA offering describes these lots as follows:
Lawrence Property: Square 3829W, lots 817, 818, 819 totaling approximately 21,094 square feet on 9th Street, NE between Monroe and Lawrence streets in Northeast Washington. The three Lawrence Property lots are being offered as one sale. Offers for individual lots will not be accepted. [asking price: $500,000]

Kearney Property: PAR 01330157 containing approximately 16,239 square feet on 9th Street, NE between Lawrence and Jackson streets in Northeast Washington. [asking price: $375,000]
The red outlining on the map above is actually incorrect as that lot does not extend north of Kearney Street.  These two lots are currently empty and WMATA is offering them for sale as sites for new buildings along the western side of 9th Street NE to accompany the following two immediate projects already under construction.

The northern one is an office building - just south of Lawrence Street upon what is shown as the lot between the two lots marked in red; the southern one is a row of 8 residential townhouses, each with two separate dwelling units - extending to just north of Kearney Street.  The addresses respectively are 3350 and 3300-3314 9th Street NE



The office building: 3350 9th Street NE eastern face


 3350 9th Street northern face

 3350 9th Street northwestern side off street parking

The office building is a project of Inle Developers LLC.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18982933/3350-9th-St-NE-Washington-DC/

http://x.lnimg.com/attachments/AD8DF4B8-F581-46BA-B378-AD03692B5178.pdf

The residential townhouses are a project of Getinet Bantayehu, who purchased the lot for $1.6 million from the initial developer Oxbridge, who had paid $500,000 for that lot in 2013.















This is land that had been long planned for D.C. I-95 throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s via the B&O Route.

While the initial 1960 engineering study had placed this area's I-95 segment to the east along 12th Street NE, as part of a planning with three separate northern radial freeways within Washington, D.C., the subsequent planning, starting with the November 1, 1962 Kennedy Administration report, had routed both directions of the highway in the area just east of the B&O railroad, with the 1966 and 1971 planning documents suggesting that this segment be placed beneath a lid with new buildings atop.

1966 B&O I-95


1971 B&O I-95

Political support for the freeway would be subverted by the planning manipulations around and in the years following the assassination of the U.S. President whose administration had adopted the B&O Route for D.C. I-95.

"Significance of Using B&O Route. Use of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad corridor to bring Routes 70-S and 95 into the city is the key to meeting the need for additional highway capacity in northern Washington, Montgomery County and northwestern Prince Georges Counties and at the same time avoiding the substantial relocation of persons, loss of taxable property and disruption of neighborhoods that would result from construction of the Northeast, North Central and Northwest Freeway proposed in the 1959 plan. Further savings are realized by placing the rapid transit line to Silver Spring and Queen’s Chapel in the same railroad corridor."
Though the November 1, 1962 transportation plan was quite explicit about a tight alignment along the railroad, the planning embodied by the engineering report publicly released on October 1964 blatantly disregarded that, with 37 alternative routes, many nowhere near the railroad, and with a recommended route option largely along the railroad but with severe deviations to the north of Monroe Street in Brookland and further north in Takoma Park on what was not only a far more destructive route - some 471 houses versus about 25 - but one longer.  Though the authorities would follow up in 1966 with a far more acceptable plan, the then new US Federal Highway Authority would waste little time with re-invigorating the opposition by announcing that they were not necessarily going to follow the 1966 plan but rather open the process up again to include the options from the extremely unpopular 1964 planning- ostensibly to save $22 million on retaining walls.
http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/02/june-1-1967-duncan-wall-letter-to-spiro.html
"...The reduced, re-routed proposal was made public last year with endorsement of D.C. And Maryland highway authorities. The D.C. Portion was forced through the National Capital Planning Commission by votes of representatives of the D.C. Highway Department and of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads. From this we concluded, reasonably enough, that the highway authorities of the two jurisdictions (Maryland and D.C.) had reached a firm understanding with the Bureau of Public Roads.
Many of us were therefore astonished and aroused to preparations for renewed protests when Washington newspapers recently reported that the Bureau has acted to open it all up again. We have not found the Bureau forthcoming with candid information, but the press articles intimate an intention to force Maryland to accept modifications of route or design ostensibly “cheaper.”

The result is that the whole controversy, which had been somewhat quiescent, is beginning to agitate the communities again. I can assure you this is so, for although I recently resigned chairmanship of the Metropolitan Citizens Council for Rapid Transit and write this simply as an individual citizen who wishes your administration well, I do remain in close touch with neighborhood sentiment on transportation-related issues..."
Such manipulations would be instrumental in prodding the various planning decision bodies, namely the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission, and the D.C. City Council to reverse their long-standing support for the B&O I-95 North Central Freeway, amidst waves of emotion that would conveniently overlook the planning manipulations as to why the explicit recommendation of the Kennedy Administration report had been disobeyed.
This has left the region with no grade separated highway leading into Washington D.C. in the vast arc from the George Washington Parkway along the Virginia shore of the Potomac River to the Baltimore Washington Parkway, and none such roads for trucks in the even larger arc from I-395 to the southwest from Virginia, to Route 50 in Maryland.

The popularized late 1960s rallying cry against constructing the I-95 North Central Freeway would be "no white mans roads through black mens' homes", with such resentment predicated upon the conveniently overlooked planning manipulations subverting the B&O North Central Freeway following the cancellations of any freeways in the wealthier areas to the west of Rock Creek Park.  Yet all of that would actually increase the disproportionate amount of the traffic burden upon poorer areas, as with those to the east of the Anacostia River where an antiquated surface Anacostia Freeway restricts local access there to the waterfront.
The Washington, D.C. area would clearly benefit from having a well designed I-95 northern radial freeway, which is best routed by the B&O corridor, and could and should follow design initiatives elsewhere for its construction as a linear park covered cut and cover facility that would likewise cover and expand the existing railroad.

Nevertheless, the region suffers under the stranglehold of the various powers that be including a WMATA so focused upon its short term profits that it would sell out the region's long term comprehensive transportation planning.

Of course Constitutional power remains to ultimately correct such planning errors, and this blog can serve as a warning beacon to anyone contemplating buying into such mis-placed real estate development projects.
http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2013/01/constitutional-power-can-free-us.html
An overview of real estate development threats to the D.C. I-95 Corridor:
http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/01/choking-dc-b-grand-arci-95-corridor.html

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Modify WMATA Farragut Connector Tunnel To Accomodate K Street Tunnel For Crosstown I-66


Years ago, during the 1960s, the idea of a vehicular tunnel beneath K Street was advocated as the best way for achieving the crosstown D.C. link for I-66.  It was promoted by opponents to the previous plan from the 1955 Inner Loop study for a new right of way swath freeway along the southern edge of Florida Avenues and U Street, requiring removing hundreds of buildings; the K Street tunnel meanwhile would have removed only a relative handful at its eastern connection, largely to clear the Carnegie Library at Franklin Square.

As such, the I-66 K Street Tunnel and had the support of US NCPC's Elizabeth Rowe, who was also connected with the private organization, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City that had been founded by Delano during the 1920s..




Planning for the WMATA rail subway system had accommodated that with space above the southern end of the Farragut North subway station platform.  The need for this connection was initially created by a decision to provide two separate stations for Farragut North and West, rather than a consolidated facility accommodating both station-stops, to avoid excavating beneath the Farragut Square park just south of K Street that would have required removing a number of trees.


During the mid 1970s, the I-66 K Street Tunnel would be 'de-mapped' to scavenge its funds for speeding construction of the WMATA rail subway system, with such reasoning that the world was going to run out of petro by the 1990s hence somehow rendering private automobiles obsolete, and that Virginia was not going to build their connecting inside the Beltway segment of I-66- both which proved to be false.

Subsequent planning following the 1970s 'de-mapping' of the I-66 K Street Tunnel now fails to respect its underground right of way space, and thus needs modification for such.

A recent article in Greater Greater Washington details the two main design options now/recently under formal consideration, with an estimated total monetary construction cost of $130 million.  See official report.

Option One places a staircase from the proposed connector tunnel to the platform below in the way.

Option Two places a new connecting section from the proposed connector tunnel to the existing mezzanine platform.

As it is the area of the southern platform of the Farragut North station that would be connected to the new pedestrian tunnel at the area beneath K Street, this existing area would need an extension to just south of K Street in order to provide the space for this connect that would avoid the space beneath K Street and hence accommodate both this new underground pedestrian connection and the K Street tunnel.   This would have to be a variant of Option One, as a continuous mezzanine level platform conflicts with the space for the K Street tunnel.

A google map photo shows three trees along the Farragut Square park's northern edge, which extends northward past the customary southern edge of the K Street right of way.