Feds Fail to Address Post 11-22- 63 planning manipulations/machavellianisms

 See:

 

 https://highways.dot.gov/highway-history/general-highway-history/dc-freeway-revolt-and-coming-metro

The Legal Basis of Blocked Washington, D.C. Expressways

I initially posted this February 6, 2007 

https://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/02/doctrinaire-anti-new-highways-position.html

The legal basis of the Washington, D.C. expressway "de-mappings"

To get $1.4 billion transferred to transit, "de-map" - aka "for all time" links representing the basic compass lines, surrendering easements to real estate development, with zero regard of long term costs to conflict with reviving these expressway links as tunnels.  To wit, what occurred afterwards starting in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, with erecting costlier office towers rather than say a strip mall, creating considerably higher eminent domain & demolition costs.

Statement of Peter S. Craig, Trustee, Committee of 100 on the Federal City. May 12, 1975
Peter S. Craig Papers ; Gelman Library Special Collections Division, G.W.U.

... Section 137(b) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 (codified as 23 U.S.C. 103(4)), which authorized the Governor (Mayor Washington, in the case of D.C.), and the responsible locally elected officials (the D.C. City Council) to jointly request the U.S. Department of Transportation to transfer federal aid, formerly earmarked for freeways, for 80% of the cost of transit improvements. Such fund transfers may occur on either of two alternatives:

First, that the Interstate segment being deleted "is not essential to the completion of a unified and connected interstate System." The following un built freeways meet that test:

(1) North Central Freeway (70-S); Maryland has already abandoned 70-S (now I-270)

(2) Northeast Freeway (I-95); Maryland likewise has abandoned I-95 within the Beltway

(3) New York Avenue Industrial Freeway. This is not even on the Interstate System.

(4) East Leg of Inner Loop (I-295). Without an I-95 to Maryland, this is a freeway leading nowhere; the I-295 label should be returned to the already-constructed Kenilworth Avenue Freeway where it began.

(5) North Leg-West Section of Inner Loop (K Street Freeway)(I-66). This Council already has urged that Virginia abandon I-66 inside the Beltway in Virginia. Consistent with this action, I-66, within the city should also be scrapped. [DW note: that I-66 was actually built and opened in 1982]

(6) North Leg-East Section (Center Leg and I-66 to East Leg). Also not essential.

(7) South Leg, Inner Loop (-695). There are enough "95s" around and through Washington without adding this one. We have I-495 around the city and I-295 through it.

(8) Three Sisters Bridge (I-266). Even Virginia's State highway Department -- never distinguished for its concern for area residents (Virginians included), has concluded this bridge should not be built. With no Virginia connection, it would be a bridge leading nowhere.

(9) Georgetown Waterfront Tunnel (I-266) This segment is also not essential for an Interstate System, although (if properly tunneled and restricted in capacity) it may be desirable to achieve other urban goals.

Second, and independently of the first reason it, freeways may be deleted and the federal aid transferred to mass transit -- even if the freeway segment might be deemed essential for a "unified and connected Interstate system" if such freeway segment "would not be essential after completion of one or more substitute public mass transit projects." See 23 C.F.R. 476.304(3). All previously planned but un built freeways in D.C. meet this test. This has been adequately demonstrated by the numerous in-depth studies published by the Committee of 100 on the Federal City and other independent analysts.

Several red herrings have been raised concerning the flexibility of the federal-aid transfer provision. None, however, has merit. For example, former D.C. Highway Director Airis, wanting to construct the South Leg of the Inner Loop (under the Lincoln Memorial) [sic] claimed that fund transfers were not applicable in that case because there were no plans for rail rapid transit "in the same corridor"; i.e., between Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and the Southwest Freeway. The Act of Congress and the DOT regulations contain no such rigid requirement. To the contrary, the federal aid transfer authority may even extend outside the urbanized area of Washington. This was made explicit by the DOT regulations which provide (23 C.F.R. 476.314):

"The proposed projects must serve the urbanized area from which the Interstate segment is withdrawn, but need not utilize the same transportation corridor as the withdrawn segment and need not be physically located within that urbanized area."

Thus, theoretically at least, the South Leg of the Inner Loop could be removed from the Interstate System and the federal matching funds for this project applied for construction of an extension of Metro to Annapolis or the Eastern Shore. Such an extension, although outside the urbanized area of Washington, would nonetheless "serve the urbanized area" of Washington.

With this wide-open legal authority to get rid of unwanted freeways and to transfer that federal aid to public transit, it is remarkable there has been so little sign of activity at the District Building to implement this authority.

Over one billion four hundred dollars of federal aid is involved. It provides a vehicle, without Congressional action, to increase the ratio of federal aid to local participation for Metro from its present 2/3-1/3 [67/33] split to an 80/20 split. Without any increase in local participation (and local taxes) it offers an additional $840 million in federal aid for Metro. If the full $1.4 billion of federal aid for Metro were desired for transit improvements, the additional matching cost to local jurisdictions (D.C., Maryland and Virginia) would be $112 million. These funds may be spent anywhere -- not merely in the District of Columbia. They could hasten the day when the full 98- mile rail rapid transit system is operating as originally planned. They could also be devoted to purchases of new buses and other transit improvements.

There is no reason for the Council to wait, simply because the city administration has been delinquent on its promises to establish a city Department of Transportation under new and competent leadership. The time is overdue for people-moving, rather than car-moving, to be the primary objective of this city's transportation planning.

We therefore recommend that the Council immediately initiate the following actions:

1. Set a date for prompt hearings on amendment of the Comprehensive Plan to delete all un built freeways (with the exception of the Whitehurst Freeway -- pending completion of the Georgetown Waterfront Study now underway), including: South Leg Freeway, North Leg-West Section (K Street Tunnel), North Leg-East Section, New York Avenue Industrial Freeway, East Leg Freeway. (North Central, Northeast and Three Sisters Bridge Freeways were eliminated in 1968).

2. Enact a resolution directing the Mayor to request changes in the designated Interstate System reflecting the Council's determinations regarding freeways that should not be built.

3. Enact a resolution requesting DOT to transfer the Federal aid for the freeways thus "de mapped" to Metro, without limiting such transfers to segments within the District of Columbia. In other words, such transfers should be available for completion of Metro within suburban Maryland and Virginia as well as in the District of Columbia.

Committee of 100 on the Federal City
Letter of May 12, 1975; Elizabeth Rowe, Chairman
Dear Mr. Chairman and Members of the Council:

The Committee of 100 on the Federal City respectively requests early action by the Council on two very pressing transportation matters:

First the de mapping of unnecessary and unwanted freeways in the District of Columbia through amendment of the city's Comprehensive Plan and appropriate requests to the US Department of Transportation for the removal of such freeways from the Interstate system.

Second, the initiation by the Council, in cooperation with the Mayor, of a request to the U.S. Department of Transportation for the transfer of the federal aid formerly earmarked for such freeways (in excess of $1.4 billion) for completion of the presently-authorized Metro rail transit system.

These actions are necessary to implement two very pressing needs: First to remove forever the cloud of destruction and more autos in an auto-chocked city caused by the presence of obsolete freeway plans in the comprehensive plan and on the interstate system; and second, to help meet the escalating costs of construction of the Metro system.

Respectfully submitted,

Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, Chairman

Grand Arc Opportunity For New Hampshire Avenue/Maryland WMATA Line

The Grand Arc Project, my selection of a name for a project constructing a D.C. North Mall/Enclosed filtrated Underground North Central Freeway (electronically tolled Expressway), offers the tantalizing opportunity to add a new WMATA line along New Hampshire Avenue into Maryland.

Since the existing WMATA Red Line would be rebuilt underground, we have the opportunity for creating a new two track WMATA line spur, beneath the hill at New Hampshire Avenue, between the RR corridor and the DC-MD line.  Such a line would connect to and from the south with the Red Line, and the Grand Arc Project's inclusion of reconstructing the railroad underground provides opportunity to increase the number of WMATA as well as MARC/CSX tracks.  Squandering the opportunity would be unacceptable, and neglects the fundamental stage-ability: of starting with this new spur, at least to its nearest station, somewhere in Maryland, between the District line and the vicinity of Sheridan Street.  This is essentially a two block long segment of the 6 lane New Hampshire Avenue commercial strip zone, and a prime candidate for re-development.  This initial stop would be called Sheridan Station.  

This entire initial segment, including the portion within the District, would be underground. 

To the north, where the topography descends into the valley at Ray Road, its extension would transition to a bridge, perhaps as a lower level of a new span for carry New Hampshire Avenue over the valley.  Past that, it would enter its second tunnel segment to pass beneath the log established parking lot of Giant Supermarket

Have a second station in the southeast quadrant of the next main commercial area at the intersection with 410 East West Highway.   Likewise, place that segment underground.  Be sure to guarantee a guarantee of rent stabilization for the existing businesses in the strip malls, within the first level of the inevitable replacement development.

Owing to the topography, of the valley at Ray Road, this line could emerge upon its own narrow viaduct, and if a bridge was constructed to place New Hampshire Avenue atop that valley, place the new WMATA line as its lower level.  Have it transition to tunnel (cut and cover) extending beneath the existing Wendy's and north past East West Highway (Rt 410).

Where the topography again descends, either have it elevated, perhaps above the median of New Hampshire Avenue, or optionally, continuing it as trench & cut and cover, to a cut and cover segment towards and at the northeast quadrant of New Hampshire Avenue's intersection with University Boulevard, at the site of this line's 3rd initial stop- University Avenue Station.

Initial project would stop here, with its design fully anticipating a further continuation along New Hampshire Avenue to White Oak, by the U.S. F.D.A. Center, with the initial portion of a subsequent extension along the wide 6 lane expressway spec Route 29, with the next stop being at the commercial area alongside Rt 29 just south of Cherry Hill Road- fairly near to the Rt 29 interchange with MD 200/ICC Inter County Connector.  

As an option, examine the use of moled tunneling, to start near the DC/MD line, to see if such could extend under the various valleys.

Construction of the Grand Arc Project would provide some added rail capacity alongside the underground vehicular expressway, with the WMATA & MARC/CSX RR, each improved from 2 to 3 track operation.

Whatever Happened With The Tunnelfication of Washington, D.C.'s SW-SE Freeway?

We ALL know that the District's SW-SE Freeway is a monstrosity.  BAD design.  NO safety shoulders.  Open trench bisecting SW, before rising up upon a hideous viaduct that crosses atop South Capital Street.  And continuing east, a Chinese wall along Virginia Avenue to the interchange with the 11th Street Bridge, and a brief surface segment, before its sole well designed segment, the pair of 4 lane rectangular box tunnels beneath Pennsylvania Avenue SE's Barney Circle.

30 years ago, the Washington Post published a good article, by Roger K. Lewis, March 27, 1993, "For The 21st Century A Capital Design Reach In Need of A Regional Reach".  Within was an illustration, indicating an underground replacement for the SW-SE Freeway.

 

 

Washington Post, March 27, 1993

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, U.S. National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) published a few brochures with illustrations of the South Capital Street area with the SW-SE Freeway viaduct removed.

In 2005, NCPC published a brochure showing a westernmost portion of an underground SW Freeway, extending further west to extend beneath Washington Channel.

Nevertheless, NCPC fails to show any plans that are workable.

Note how the renderings above have substandard capacity (refusing to correct the bottleneck), poor geometry (too sharp a curve), and impractical to build as it transitions upon exactly the same right of way, which must maintain traffic through the reconstruction.

Even worse, the 1990s NCPC planning with the South Capital Mall - what it would obviously be called, yet such a phrase appears nowhere in any of their public publications - did not even include an underground replacement for the SW-SE Freeway.  Instead it presents the unworkable-absolutely impractical notion of I-395 simply connecting to 14th and F Streets!  An anti express highway exemplified by such NCPC published statements at that time, that "amphibious cars - contemporary versions of the old Army ducks - could render bridges obsolete" - try picturing that!

Anyone looking at the situation can see the obvious, that a band of land MUST be cleared directly to the south.  And do note that the area WAS already cleared during the late 1950s-early 1960s for the SW Redevelopment Project.  Yet nonetheless, that area was subsequently filled with new residential development by the early 1970s. 

 

By 1993, that area had become developed except for the plot bordered by the SW Freeway southward to G Street, and extending west-east between 9th and 7th Streets SW.  That is the area that people likely saw as being reserved by the feds for serving as the staging area for a project to reconstruct the SW Freeway underground, as well as definitely widening that short stretch of expressway to the interchange with the Center Leg/3rd Street Tunnel.  Indeed that segment was built with inadequate capacity, lacking the must have minimum of two added lanes per direction, owing to the 1955 design report's excuse over aesthetics, never-mind the failure to design it as a cut and cover tunnel, and that the space was cleared anyway for the SW Redevelopment.

Nevertheless, and quite weirdly, in 1999, shortly after the start of the administration of D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, motorists are horrified, seeing a new real estate development project there being erected- the "Capital Square" townhouse project.  It fills that parcel with townhouses, including a row of 28 at the northern side, a mere 16 or so feet from the open trench 1950s design expressway.  This "Capital Square" project is undertaken by an entity called "E.Y.A. Associates.

They are the same firm that subsequently constructs another townhouse project to the east, facing the southern side of the same expressway between 3rd and 4th Streets, between I Street to the south and Virginia Avenue, complicating not only ever under-grounding that segment (which is an elevated earth filled berm), but also complicating the indisputably required Virginia Avenue railroad tunnel reconstruction project.  E.Y.A. reportedly underplays the likelihood of that project to potential townhouse buyers.  These townhouses are filled with new dwellers. At least one of them gets to bring a law suit to block the project.  And that effort is supported by the "Committee of 100 on the Federal City", which instead sought to replace that railroad with one to the south side of the Anacostia River, and which would NOT be a tunnel.  Fortunately that effort failed, and the Virginia Avenue railroad tunnel project gets built.

Now, one would suppose that the SW-SE Freeway corridor would have undergone an effort to purchase properties for the space to construct an underground replacement.  As traffic MUST be maintained through the construction, a band of land MUST be assembled.  As this area includes existing occupied dwellings, simply purchase them over time, at least when they come onto the market, and either demolish, or at least have occupied by people told that the use is only for a set period of time.

But get this, one such area IS cleared out, with dwellings removed, and without any protest sufficient to block such dislocations- the area immediately west of 4th Street SW, right next to the expressway where it transitions from trench to viaduct.  And real estate developers are allowed to erect a new residential building- at 600 4th Street SW, called the "Kiley Apartments".

And this occurs in the same general area where the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Authority are situated.

What is preventing the U.S. government from doing its duty?!

Who decried that only the City of Boston is to get a serious project to reconstruct its main existing expressways underground with its Central Artery Tunnel Project (with its mainline done sadly with NO shoulders)?  If Ted Kennedy and Tip O'Neil could get such for Boston, why NOTHING for the nation' Capital, Washington, D.C.?!?!

Why Is Biden Allowing the Continual Blight of the SW-SE Freeway Viaduct Atop South Capital Street?

30 years ago, in 1993, the Washington Post published an article about future planning for Washington, D.C., which featured reconstructing the SW-SE Freeway, removing the surface and elevated highway and submerging a replacement expressway within a new tunnel.

Illustration from the Washington Post, 1993

Yet, D.C. Department of Public Works is now embarking upon a project to reconstruct the existing horrifically blighting elevated facility.  See: https://seswbridges.ddot.dc.gov/

 DDOT is planning to rehabilitate the SE/SW Freeway (I-695) Bridges, which comprise the elevated interstate of I-695 over South Capitol Street SW, New Jersey Avenue SE, and Virginia Avenue SE / 2nd Street SE, along with the associated ramps. This series of bridges were built from 1958 to 1963 and rehabilitated in 1991. Due to the age of the bridges and continued deterioration to some elements, the main objective will be to rehabilitate the bridges and update key features to further extend their service life. Additional improvements to lighting, signing, lane striping, and drainage will be incorporated in conjunction with the bridge rehabilitations.

What gives?  If Boston, Massachusetts could have it Central Artery/3rd Harbor Tunnel project - the "Big Dig" - approved way back in 1986, started circa 1991, and completed about 2005, why can't Washington, D.C., our nations capital, have its project to replace its disgusting, badly designed, no safety shoulder 1959-67 SW-SE Freeway likewise replaced?

Strong Towns Misrepresents SW Freeway SW Displacement

 "Strong Towns" which is typically dogmatic against constructing any new expressways, misrepresents building demolition impacts of late 1950s, early 1960s construction of the SW-SE Freeway:

"Smart Growth America’s analysis puts numbers behind these arguments. It estimates that the construction of ... I-395/695 in DC destroyed 99% of buildings in the city’s southwest quadrant, displacing 4,700 people and causing an average of $483,000 in lost home equity."

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/7/24/what-we-must-do-to-address-the-historic-harms-of-highways

This claim that the freeway/expressway destroyed 99% of the buildings in the district;s sw quadrant is false, it completely neglects the time periods SW Urban Renewal District program.  The expressway itself displaced a fraction of all of this.

Read about the SW Redevelopment at the blog Whose Downtown

The federal government established the Redevelopment Land Agency and the National Capital Planning Commission to design, monitor, and complete the redevelopment of Southwest D.C. under the District of Columbia Redevelopment Act of 1950.  The rationale provided for the urban renewal project included concerns about congestion in the downtown area and preoccupation over unhealthy slum conditions and unsightly dilapidated buildings.  The major expansion of the federal government during the New Deal and World War II created pressure to free up residential space for federal employees who worked downtown.  Additionally, Title I of the National Housing Act of 1949 stipulated that major urban cities would receive funds in order to renovate blighted areas, including neighborhoods classified as slums or buildings deemed unsafe and uninhabitable.  These acts gained judicial support when in 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled that a property could be condemned and taken by the federal government solely to beautify a community for the benefit the general public.^[2]

The implementation of the urban renewal project displaced the large number of African Americans living in Southwest D.C.  The project leveled 99 percent of buildings in the Southwestern quadrant of the city and forced the 4,500 African American Families who had previously resided in Southwest D.C. to relocate to other areas –mainly to Northeast and Southeast D.C.^[3]  Of the 5,900 new buildings constructed in the area, only 310 were classified as moderately-priced housing units.^[4]  The project tore apart the culture and history of historic African American neighborhoods.  Following resettlement in other areas of the city, 25% of displaced residents reported not making a single friend in their new neighborhood.^[5]  While local critics deemed the urban renewal program to be the “Negro Removal Program,” the project had a wide impact on the nation as it became a model for other large cities to emulate.^[6]

https://whosedowntown.wordpress.com/urban-renewal-the-story-of-southwest-d-c/

I challenge anyone to look at SW DC, whether on a map, or in person, to see the considerably larger area now occupied by post 1950s buildings.

The Strong Towns article misstating the 99 percent figure is titled "What We Must Do To Address The Historic Harms of Highways" offers nothing with regard to that with any of the existing urban expressways, such as the D.C. SW-SE Freeway (which really needs a major project to reconstruct with added capacity to deal with the bottleneck, within new tunnel shells equipped with vehicular exhaust filtration, underground.

Strong Towns does this typically in conformance to its jesuitical, neo medievalist opposition to any new roads.

Smart Towns needs to get its facts straight, as well as abandon its neo medievalist idiotology, and start consideration of reasonable design solutions for a host of major underground, filtrated urban highway projects for both existing and new roads.

Takoma WMATA Station Boondoggle Threatens Corridor

Yet another insane development.  Whereas a past proposal would have 95 new dwellings, this project situates 440 new dwellings, directly along DC's sole northern radial transport corridor for the sake of added profits. 

Authorities expected to rubber-stamp this nonsense July 13, 2023

See:

https://ggwash.org/view/90211/440-units-of-housing-at-takoma-station-near-final-approval?emci=b2f85143-bd20-ee11-a9bb-00224832eb73&emdi=5d2574d8-bd20-ee11-a9bb-00224832eb73&ceid=23048710

(Note that Greater Greater Washington articles no longer routinely include a comment section- why might that be? - to be expected perhaps from a site that has devolved into a cheerleader for reckless development.)

Projects would mandate that the area be forever divided by elevated railway.

See my alternative proposal for a park covered multi-model transport corridor published in 1997

https://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/07/volvos-subliminal-message-for-takoma.html

Note how all of this ill placed development came AFTER I made proposal during the later 1990s.

Read how the authorities deliberately blundered this planning in the wake of 11-22-63

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2012/01/crafted-controversy-scuttling-of-jfks-b.html

Also see a look at the dangerous nature of such development, built within a freight rail derailment zone, placing transit development profits over people:

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/03/choking-b-grand-arci-70s-corridor.html

Let's break the chains of Roman Catholic Church and masonic organization mis-rule!

21st Century Washington, D.C. Freeway System

The government wants to spend trillions on COVID relief and upon infrastructure.  But will they dare ever do anything about the inadequate and incomplete Washington D.C. freeway system?

Builds upon and corrects deficiencies of past planning.

Corrects capacity and geometric restrictions at the northern Capital Beltway Rock Creek Park passage, with Capital Beltway entirely buried from Wisconsin Avenue to Seminary Road in box tunnel beneath an expanded Rock Creek Park.

Designs a Central Artery - B&O Route North Central Freeway - faithful to the 1962 JFK Administration endorsed concept that the feds undermined following 1963.  It would be fed from the northwest with its own carriageway connections to I-270 via the above reconstructed Beltway segment.  And it would be fed from the northeast via a tunnel alongside New Hampshire Avenue for the PEPCO power line corridor I-95, further refined as a cut and cover tunnelway design for an expanded RR and a new bottleneck free highway beneath a new linear park- what would be Washington, D.C.'s new North Mall/Grand Arc.

Reconstructs the SWSE Freeway from just west of Washington Channel to at least 3rd Street SE as an expanded cut and cover tunnel, with added capacity to eliminate the northeast to southwest traffic flow bottleneck for the Center Leg-SW Freeway combo.  Augments the Center Leg with parallel tunnels under 2nd and 3rd Street, with tunnel extension to the northeast under O Street for a single block west and east of North Capital Street.  Restores the recently decommissioned east of 11th Street SE Freeway as box tunnel covered facility, under a new surface boulevard, and extends this past Barney Circle, under a new pedestrian waterfront promenade to RFK Stadium/East Capital Street, with box tunnel continuing to the northwest to connect with the North Mall/Grand Arc Central Artery to I-270 and I-95.  The design would include a set of tunnel links crossing each other descending to pass under the Anacostia River, initially of a north-south I-295East Leg tunnel, and subsequently - as part of what could be a subsequent project to reconstruct the 11th Street Bridge approaches underground - an easterly SE Freeway link to a DC295 corridor reconstructed in cut and cover tunnel, with separate carriageways for north-south I-295, and east-west traffic, promoted by a new cross Potomac Tunnel to Virginia 110, optionally designated as I-66.

Design a NW system of radials and intercepting downtown system: westerly; an I-266 starting in Virginia via a 3 Sisters Tunnel, and west-northwesterly via a Canal Road Tunnel with a completed Clara Barton Parkway, merging together entirely within tunnel under the Georgetown waterfront, with West Leg connections to and from the south, and then K Street with a parallel tunnel under N Street-Rhode Island Avenue-O Street, to connect with the Central Artery; a north-northwesterly drilled NW Freeway tunnel emanating from the Wisconsin Avenue corridor into a reconstructed West Leg that splits to its south to: 1) a cross Potomac Tunnel to Virginia Route 27; and 2) a connection to a reconstructed, more capacious, underground SWSE Freeway.

 

New Development Threat To New York Avenue Area I-395/new I-195 Extension

New public right of way threat: "Douglas Development" 557 unit residential building, architects HOK Architects, to be built upon now empty triangle between O Street and the heavily used North Capitol Street and New York Avenue.

Take a close look- 

way more building displacement along the west side of North Capitol Street?

See:  https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/douglas-development-pitches-557-unit-development/17764

O Street is by far the best alignment for a tunneled extension of I-195 (I-395 is being re-named) to the northeast, presenting the best geometry (the curved transition has a greater turning radii of any of the alternate plans, even those from the 1950s, let alone the horrifically deficient 1996 "Ron Linton" plan) with comparably little displacement.

The O Street Tunnel would use the entire right of way with, as defined by the northern edge of the recently built Dunbar High School building, removing the buildings to the east along the southern side of that street for one (1) block, with that right of way continuing due east of North Capitol Street through the now empty lands to the vicinity of the Wendy's ("Dave Thomas Circle"), before turning to follow the northern side of New York Avenue to the confluence of the two main railroad corridors.

Where is new U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on this?  

Does he support an O Street I-195/I-395 tunnel to fix that area so it can be better developed than it would otherwise be as an open traffic sewer?  Does he support of a truly comprehensive transportation plan that gets our Capital City highway system back on track with a modern primarily underground express system, with its centerpiece of a multi-model, linear park covered North Mall/Grand Arc project establishing needed highway links, along with improved rail service, all designed to fit together.

Or does he support Washington DC's traditional economic/environmental racism of "de-emphasizing" the 3rd Street Tunnel/Center Leg (see my numerous posts on this blog regarding DEVELOPER THREATS TO OUR RIGHT OF WAYS), with the longstanding local Washington D.C. racist polices of pushing the traffic burden disproportionately upon the area's least affluent areas in SE?

Letter From Georgetown Law On The Center Leg Cover & Chock Project

As usual, no mention of the crime.

 Wallace Mlyniec

by Wallace Mlyniec

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/campus-services/facilities/construction-info/

April 10, 2013

Dear colleagues,

You may have noticed some activity on the road bed and on the streets surrounding the I 395 freeway west of the Law Center. If so you would have seen engineers drilling core samples to test the composition of the soil and to search for archeological remnants in the area. A construction company, Balfour Beatty, has also converted the pink building at the corner of 3rd Street and Massachusetts Avenue into a construction management center. These activities signal the early stages of the development project over the highway.  The development was formerly known as the Air Rights Project or the Return to L’Enfant, but is now known as Capitol Crossing.

As you may recall, the developers, Property Group Partners (PGP), intend to build a deck over the freeway between E Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Depending on how one counts, 5 or 6 buildings will be erected on the deck for offices, housing, and retail activities. The retail spaces, which will be located on the first floor of Massachusetts Avenue, 2nd Street, and 3rd Street, will add vibrancy and needed services to our neighborhood. The apartment building will add new residents in about one hundred and fifty rental units. When completed, the project will contain approximately 2.4 million square feet of occupiable space, bringing 24-hour activity to the neighborhood. The buildings, all LEED certified with green roofs, will be 12 stories tall. Unfortunately, this will eliminate our views to the west.
The rectory of Holy Rosary church, which now sits in the middle of F Street at 3rd on the other side of the freeway, will be demolished and rebuilt behind the church. This is where it was sited before the freeway was built. The Jewish historical synagogue, now located on 3rd Street near Massachusetts Avenue, will be moved to the Building Museum grounds during construction and then to a site on the corner of 3rd and F Streets.

The current entrance to and exit from the freeway heading south, now located on 3rd Street, will be eliminated and a new freeway entrance heading south will be created from Massachusetts Avenue. The exit going north on 2nd Street, now reaching street level alongside the Williams Library, will be relocated slightly to the south of where it is now. Our driveway on the 2nd Street side of McDonough Hall will remain once construction is completed.

G Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets will be open only to pedestrians and bicycles. F Street between 2nd and 3rd will be open to automobile traffic but will have traffic calming devices to discourage automobile traffic. Reopening these streets will unite the west and east ends of downtown and give us quicker access the center of the city. Opening F Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets, however, allows the Mayor to terminate our easement for the Tower Green and to reestablish F Street though our campus. Ultimately, this is an issue of contract and politics. We do not expect any conversations between Georgetown and the Mayor concerning this issue to begin for at least three years.

Construction will commence sometime between mid-July and the end of August of this year. The first stage will involve utility replacements under 2nd, 3rd, E, and H Streets and under Massachusetts Avenue. The developers are still studying the civil engineering drawings to determine which utilities need to be replaced. As of today, we are unsure about where utility work will commence, but once started, it will last for 6 months to a year.

The construction of the deck will commence in 2014 after the utility work is substantially completed. Construction will begin at Massachusetts Avenue and move south. If the freeway remains open, it will take 4 years and $250 million to build the deck. If it is closed, the deck can be constructed in 1 ½ to 2 years. The Department of Transportation has not yet issued a decision regarding the freeway closing. Once the deck is completed between Massachusetts Avenue and G Street, construction of the North buildings along Massachusetts Avenue will begin.

Needless to say, our operations will be disrupted. It appears at this time that the most disruptive work will take place during utility replacements on 2nd Street and during reconstruction of the freeway exit onto 2nd Street. Peter Brown and I are working closely with the construction team and thus far, they seem willing to accommodate our needs. They have yet to develop a construction schedule, but we will be working with them to try to have their schedule accommodate the rhythms of our academic year.

We have a team in place at the Law Center to advise Peter and me about Law Center concerns. We have members from the Registrar’s Office, the Department of Security, the Day Care Center, the Gewirz Center, the Facilities Department, the Admissions Office, and the Library. If your work will be substantially impacted by construction and feel the need to be on this working group, please let me know. Once we get closer to the commencement of construction, I intend to send e mails to the Law Center community to keep everyone apprised of the issues.

I have discussed the project with the Associate Deans and the Dean’s senior staff. They will be able to answer many of your questions. Feel free to contact me they are unable to provide an answer.

This project is truly an extraordinary engineering feat. When the project is complete, and that may be ten to twelve years from now, our neighborhood will have a completely different look and feel. Most of the changes will be to the Law Center community’s benefit. I hope you enjoy watching the project evolve.

Wally Mlyniec

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/01/choking-i-395-center-leg.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2014/12/fhwa-bogus-finding-of-no-significant.html

 http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-crime-in-washington-dc.html

Letter From Georgetown Law On The History of the Washington, D.C. Freeway System

Senior Counsel, Juvenile Justice Clinic, Lupo-Ricci Professor of Clinical Legal Studies

B.S., Northwestern; J.D., Georgetownnote- Georgetown Law is situated directly alongside
the now under constriction segment of the I-395 Center Leg

see: http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-crime-in-washington-dc.html

Wallace Mlyniec

Why is that ditch there anyway?
by Wallace Mlyniec

A generally good piece, though misleading and erroneous on the cross-town I-66 link
with a few errors- see notes.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi9nMySmYzTAhVr1oMKHV9MDXgQFggsMAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.law.georgetown.edu%2Fcampus-services%2Ffacilities%2Fconstruction-info%2Fupload%2F2014-6-11-Why-is-that-ditch-there-anyway.docx&usg=AFQjCNEdjfTNlUiIZ-W5xTazLxf3atoCsg&sig2=xaYLuwmxU8SsVgqlBFiEGQ&bvm=bv.151426398,d.cGc

Dear colleagues,

As you have undoubtedly noticed, the utility phase of the Capitol Crossing project has begun. Backhoes are digging trenches twenty-feet deep and metal supports are being lowered into the trenches to prevent collapse as workers install and connect sections of a new sewer line to take storm water and waste water away from the neighborhood. I will be reporting more about those lines in another email; but today, as you look at the work going on and the highway behind it, you may be asking yourself, “Why is that ditch there anyway?”

Any modern urban planner looking at the I-395 ditch that bisects the East End of downtown probably recoils in horror and wonders why anyone would deliberately create such a fissure in the urban landscape. Such modern thinking, however, has not always permeated city planning. 

The post-World War II prosperity changed the habits of the vast majority of Americans. Wages rose, home ownership became more common, and suburbia seemed to expand in every direction. Cities became places to work and visit but they were no longer considered the primary place to live. People moved farther from the central cores of cities and their geographic horizons expanded. They discovered new places to explore, places they had only heard of before, and they now had the money to do so. Moreover, the also had the means because the automobile had liberated middle-class America.

Post-War Americans fell in love with the automobile in ways that were different from before the War. Although Henry Ford and his twentieth-century assembly lines made cars easier to make and somewhat affordable, America’s post-World War II prosperity made those cars affordable and accessible to more people. A car of one’s own became every man’s and every woman’s birthright. Coming of age for teenagers meant getting a driver’s license. The cars themselves became works of art, each distinctive in style from those of other manufacturers. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler created multiple brands and multiple lines within brands. Detroit hummed, producing cars of status like Cadillacs, Mercuries, Packards, and Imperials; but they also made more affordable cars like Ford Fairlanes, Chevys, and Plymouths for middle class Americans. Unlike today’s cars, the cars of the 1950s and 1960s were beautiful and instantly recognizable. You can see some of the classics if you visit

https://www.google.com/search?q=classic+1950s+cars&client=firefox-a&hs=mZ1&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=lTT-UpqCG-f00QHL6YGAAg&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1045&bih=1005

This love affair with the automobile and the desire for fast and convenient travel spawned President Eisenhower’s U.S. Interstate Highway System, considered by many to be the greatest public works project in modern history. As a young officer in 1919, Eisenhower traveled with a convoy of trucks from San Francisco to Washington. The trip took 62 days which gave him plenty of time to notice that there were seldom places to eat, sleep, or repair broken down vehicles along the way. Eisenhower never forgot the rigors of that convoy. His war experiences also impressed upon him the need for good transportation across the land. These experiences, combined with a Cold War defensive mentality, resulted in the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The Pennsylvania Turnpike, opened to traffic on October 1, 1940, was then the prototype of the modern, high-speed interstate highway. It, along with the then highly profitable Hutchinson River and Merritt Parkways in New York and Connecticut, were incorporated into the interstate system at the time of its creation in 1956. More freeways and toll roads were soon built or while existing ones were integrated into the Interstate System. Today, the Interstate Highway System comprises 46,876 miles of concrete. For more fascinating information about the Interstate System, visit

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/homepage.cfm 

America’s love affair with the automobile and the coming of the Interstate Highway System combined to make travel in and out of a city easy; but it also altered the notion of urban planning and ultimately led to the I-395 ditch. Although it is sometimes disputed, most urbanists today would say that planning in the late 1940s and 1950s was focused on transforming the built environment of the country to a suburban form, while at the same time, devising the most efficient way to move cars in, out, and around a city. The District of Columbia was not immune from these influences. Despite the departure of many government employees who supported the war effort, the population of Washington had soared to over 900,000 by 1950. (By the way, today’s D.C. population is only 632,323.) In that same year, the population in the metropolitan area exceeded 1.5 million. Although retailers saw their customers abandoning the inner city for the far edges of the District and for the newly emerging suburbs, the demand for downtown office space accelerated as trade associations, educational societies, and national planning groups recognized that the Federal government intended to retain its primacy in the affairs of the nation and the world. In 1950, there were over 600,000 civilian jobs in Washington, D.C., twice the number there had been in 1940. The police complained that the overwhelming number of cars coming into the city interfered with crime fighting activities. Suburbanites, driving into the city to work, found the city streets congested and difficult to maneuver. Despite their new prosperity and well-being, the suburbanites and the locals were not happy when behind the wheel in the city. 

The National Capital Park and Planning Commission, authorized by Congress in 1945 to rebuild Washington's deteriorated neighborhoods, was beset by lobbyists from many special interest groups, each with a grand plan to end the blight and revitalize the city. Among the more powerful were local transportation officials and the sellers of the beautiful and affordable automobiles. They demanded that transportation within and around the District of Columbia be improved. At first they were extremely successful. In 1947, the Whitehurst Freeway began to move commuters around the congested lower Georgetown area. In 1948, century-old elm trees were destroyed to build the DuPont Circle Underpass that would ease automobile traffic and serve the city's busiest trolley line. The Capital Beltway, originally called the Circumferential Highway, was also designed in the mid-1950s. Its first segment, which included the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, was completed in 1961. The entire 64-mile highway was completed in 1964, at a cost of $190 million. America was moving on wheels and D.C. was not going to be left behind.

The Center Leg Freeway was part of a larger project called the Inner Loop, which itself was part of an even larger scheme to reroute traffic along several corridors through the city and then out to the developing Capital Beltway. The Inner Loop had several segments. The South Leg was designed to run along the Potomac River, connecting a new Southeast Freeway, the 14th Street Bridge, and the new Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, before turning towards Georgetown. There it would connect with the Potomac River Expressway, a new highway that would be paved over the historic C & O Canal. The last part of this plan was eliminated after Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas challenged highway proponents to walk the entire length of the Canal with him and to discover and then preserve its natural beauty. The East Leg was to have begun at the new Anacostia Freeway, cross the 11th Street Bridge, and proceed along 11th Street near Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill to Florida Avenue. If completed, it would have destroyed a beautiful group of row houses on 11th Street S.E., now called Philadelphia Row, built by Charles Gessford between 1865 and 1867. At Florida Avenue, the loop would turn west and follow along T Street until it turned south above DuPont Circle to join up in lower Georgetown with the Potomac River Expressway. Another proposed highway, called the Northeast Freeway, would have commenced on the East Leg at Florida Avenue, and then continue along the railroad tracks to Silver Spring. Other features proposed at one time or another were an I-66 leg going up K Street from the East Leg to Georgetown, crossing a new bridge over the Potomac River at the Three Sisters Islands, and then proceeding along a new North Leg on 16th Street. [sic*]Planners also proposed an expressway along Missouri Avenue [the Intermediate Beltway, along the route previously proposed for the Fort Drive Parkway] and another, called the Industrial Parkway, that would have run along New York Avenue and then to Baltimore via the new Baltimore Washington Parkway.

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  [*sic - This description is potentially confusing.  It is either:

- a vague mention of a later plan that appeared during the mid 1960s for the cross-town I-66 link, within a paragraph that describes the freeway system as planned during the latter 1950s.

The initial plan was for the cross-town I-66 North Leg to run from the west as an open trench freeway continuing from the I-66 West Leg that would be constructed during the early 1960s in the vicinity of today's Kennedy center and the Watergate complex, northerly alongside Florida Avenue and then easterly between U and T Streets to an interchange with the planned northern end of the open trenched Center Leg Freeway alongside New Jersey Avenue.  An eastern extension of the North Leg, continuing upon an elevated berm, would continue to the vicinity of Gallaudet University to meet the northern end of the open trenched East Leg at 11th Street NE.

Opponents to that plan as Elizabeth Rowe by 1965 offered the alternative idea of constructing the cross-town I-66 North Leg via a tunnel beneath K Street, eastward from Georgetown to the Center Leg, and refined by 1971 taking advantage of the geometry by placing the crosstown I-66 tunnel's western approach beneath Pennsylvania Avenue just west of Washington Circle, continuing beneath K Street to the vicinity of Mt Vernon Square and then to its eastern approach tunnel beneath and partially offset to the north of New York Avenue.  The I-66 North Leg would be an essentially east-west route; 16th Street which is a north-south road was never proposed for the east-west North Leg]

- Or, given its linking phrase "crossing a new bridge over the Potomac River at the Three Sisters Islands and then...", the whole sentence should instead read "Other features proposed at one time or another were an I-266 leg from the West Leg along a widened Whitehurst Freeway (which is along the K Street axis in Georgetown) , crossing a new bridge over the Potomac River at the Three Sisters Islands, and then proceeding alongside the Spout Run Parkway in Virginia to connect with I-66.

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MAP OF THE PROPOSED D.C. HIGHWAY SYSTEM [*]

[*Mlyniec's paper describes the Washington, D.C. freeway system via the plans from the Inner Loop Engineering Study report from 1955, yet shows the system as later vastly re-routed as illustrated from the "Summary of Comparison of Alternative Systems District of Columbia Interstate System 1971 by Deleuw, Cather Associates, Harry Weese & Associates, Ltd."

[Washington, D.C. Freeway System as proposed in 1971]

[BELOW: the Initial and Revised Proposals for the D.C. regional freeway system,
downtown Inner Loop,
and the Inner Loop's North Leg (west) cross-town I-66

 added by Douglas A. Willinger/A Trip Within The Beltway to better present the story.]

Washington, D.C. Freeway System 

 as proposed cir.1958

Washington, D.C.

Inner Loop Freeway

as proposed 1955

Washington, D.C. Inner Loop I-66 North Leg (west)

as proposed during the late 1950s-early 1960s, 

with I-95 (now I-395) Center Leg extension at bottom right, 

with connecting interchange at New Jersey Avenue and T Street.

While these two freeways were to be depressed below street level,  

the I-95 North Leg (east) at the right was to be elevated.

Washington, D.C. Inner Loop I-66 North Leg (west)

as proposed in the 1971 

"Summary of Comparison of Alternative Systems District of Columbia Interstate System 1971 by Deleuw, Cather Associates, Harry Weese & Associates, Ltd."

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/i-66-north-leg-west-k-street-tunnel.html

Also see:

http://www.roadstothefuture.com/DC_Interstate_Fwy.html

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Fearful that the highways would diminish the grand views contemplated by Pierre L'Enfant and George Washington, the planners intended to depress [*sic] the highways below the surface of the city. The Mall would be spared by a tunnel running under the Lincoln Memorial. Each Leg of the Inner Loop would be built below the streetscape and bridged at strategic points. E Street would have a tunnel from 6th to 13th Street, N.W. It would have actually run under the White House. Depressed tunnels were also planned for portions of 9th 12th and 14th Streets. Remnants of this depressed highway system exist today as the E Street Expressway and Virginia Avenue near the Kennedy Center in Foggy Bottom, and at the Center Leg Freeway west of the Law Center. Obviously, such a system would have cut the city into several enclaves isolated from each other by highways, at least until decks could be built over some of them. The old Capitol Hill neighborhood provides an example of how this plan would have degraded the city. The original Capitol Hill neighborhood developed on the banks of the Anacostia River when President John Adams established the Navy Yard. It then grew to the north along 8th Street, S.E. The Eastern Market, a Capitol Hill landmark located today at 7th and C Streets, S.E., was originally sited at about 5th and K Streets, S.E., between the Navy Yard and the emerging Capitol Hill residential neighborhood. Today, the Southeast Freeway, elevated rather than depressed, divides the Capitol Hill neighborhood at Virginia Avenue, hampering efforts to enhance the old 8th Street commercial district and connect the neighborhoods south and north of the highway.

[*sic- its should read "... some of the highways..."  Although the trenched 11th Street East Leg and the Center Leg next to Georgetown Law Center are correctly described, and the author makes the useful observation that these could be eventually decked (covered) over, he only mentions that the Southeast Freeway is elevated rather than depressed, nor that is only so west of 11th Street (the portion to the east sitting on the surface at a sufficiently low where the topography descends towards the Anacostia to permit erecting a deck atop.grade to permit.  He fails to mention that the adjourning segment of the Southwest Freeway is also elevated, and so was the portion of the 1950s design proposal for the North Leg to the east of its connection at New Jersey Avenue with the northern end of the Center Leg.]

The Center Leg Freeway, developed in our East End neighborhood in the 1950s and approved in 1964, was even more devastating to the D.C. urban landscape. By the time the existing portion was completed in 1973, over 400 dwellings were demolished and more than 100 businesses and 1600 residents were displaced. When the Law Center moved to this neighborhood in 1971, the East End was a virtual ghost town. A future email will discuss the devastation of this old, primarily Italian, but integrated neighborhood.

Notwithstanding the approval of the Center Leg Freeway, it was never completed. The portion of the Center Leg that was completed ran a mere 1.4 miles from the Southeast Freeway interchange to Massachusetts Avenue. It was 22 feet below sea level, with a tunnel under the Mall that ran 3,500 feet. Costing $81 million (1972 dollars), it was reputed to be the most expensive highway ever built at the time. It was also the most technically complex. Despite its technological complexity, it became a highway to nowhere.

Most of the Inner Loop plan was scrapped after years of controversy. Lawsuits by the Committee of 100, the D.C. Federation of Civic Associations, and other civic groups, protests by activists like Sammy Abbot and Peter Craig, the demand for a new subway transit system, and the obvious racial discrimination associated with the plan ultimately resulted in its demise. Still, remnants remain. The road along the Potomac River and around the Lincoln Memorial that connects Independence Avenue with the Rock Creek Parkway and the E Street Expressway were built as a compromise. The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, the Southeast Freeway, the Anacostia Freeway, and the depressed Virginia Avenue in Foggy Bottom are a few parts of the original plan that still exist. Old arguments about parts of the plan resurface from time to time. Debates continue about the existence of an interchange at Barney Circle on Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E., and Virginia legislators still dream of a Three Sister's Bridge. As for the Center Leg, the highway beyond Massachusetts Avenue became a parking lot until 1982 when it was extended to K Street. The extension, however, did nothing to change its fate as a relic from the past. Now that relic will continue its limited purpose but it will disappear from view, buried beneath the new Capitol Crossing project.

The intense and prolonged resistance to the Inner Loop ultimately saved the L'Enfant Plan. Saving it turned out to be critical to the urban renaissance that downtown Washington is experiencing today. For the next eight years, we will be eye witnesses to that renaissance. We will have a close up view as the East End neighborhood is reconnected to the downtown and a part of the original L’Enfant design is reestablished. The ditch will remain but it will be covered by a seven acre deck replete with modern buildings, new residents, and new businesses. I intend to chronicle that journey in the coming years so that you can share in the exuberance of this extraordinary urban project. Stay tuned.

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I invite Wallace Mlyniec and his readers to learn about the history and designs of the Washington, D.C. freeway system, as built and as proposed through this blog of mine that I started nearly a decade ago "A Trip Within The Beltway".

About Wallace Mlyniec: