Washington, D.C. Unanimous Cave In On Route Chock

D.C. City Council votes unanimously to subvert transport corridor chock in total violation of post 911 evacuation route concerns, approving 'Brookland Small Area Plan' that shoehorns development to even block adding a single northbound track.


From Greater, Greater, Washington:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=1747

The DC Council's Committee of the Whole approved the Brookland Small Area Plan this morning. Technically, they just placed a resolution on the calendar to approve the plan, with some comments; the full Council will vote on the plan later today. However, after this vote, final passage is overwhelmingly likely. Update: The plan passed unanimously.

David-

What was the vote? Was it unanimous or was their some diversity of opinion, debate??

by Douglas Willinger on Mar 3, 2009 11:34 am

Unanimous on a voice vote.

by David Alpert on Mar 3, 2009 11:41 am

That's some government.

That is utterly consistent with my experience when I was promoting the Alexandria Orb and the preservation of the proposed Washington Street Urban Deck.

It was proposed to cover 1,100 feet of the Beltway but which was cut back by some 80% to trade away the funds for things as prettier sidewalks along and around the Prince Street area, voted unanimously by the Alexandria City Council in Dec 2000 and by USNCPC in March 2001.

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-happened-at-alexandria-city-hall.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-could-have-been-said-backroom.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-this-was-outcome-of-highly.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/rubber-stamp-resolution-by-us-national.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-others-got-from-siphoning-urban.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-things-went-at-us-nati_117295465376800441.html

See more at my blog 'A Trip Within the Beltway' under the tag "Alexandria Orb"

by Douglas Willinger on Mar 3, 2009 12:00 pm

B&O "Y" Route Convergence Critique

1966 B&O Route Low Level I-70S-I-95 "Y" route

It was under capacity: committing the cardinal sin regarding the number of lanes, with a lesser number fed by a greater number.

A 6 lane upper left I-70S, and an 8 lane upper right I-95, should converge into 14 lanes, not the mere 12 of the 1966 design (with a questionable 1 lane drop for I-95 at its ramp connections towards North Capitol Street), that would quickly funnel into 10.

I-70S-I-95 convergence
1966 B&O Route Low Level

This set of design defects was shared by the 1964 plan, which also fed more lanes into fewer. The 1964 plan had 6 lanes apiece from the 8 lane main roadways of I-70S and I-95 converge into 12 lanes quickly narrowing to only 10 (plus the 2 lane reversible median roadway that had not been planned with connections to the I-95 Northeast Freeway), with both I-95 and I-70S having a 1 lane drop and pickup, the former for the North Capital connections, the latter with “round the corner” connections between both highways to exchange their southbound to northbound traffic, e.g. southbound I-95 to northbound I-70S and southbound I-70S to northbound I-95: a connection that.

Provided that traffic patterns would allow the lane drops, the combined 6 or 8 +2 I-70S and 6 or 8 I-95, would ideally require the sum of these numbers: 14 to 18 lanes.

As per the 1964 design with its 2 lane median roadway for I-70S (but not I-95), this would translate to a 6/2/6 or 8/2/8 cross section, or perhaps a duel barrel design, with a 4/4/2/4/4 configuration.

To accommodate this number of lanes, the existing 6-8 lane Center Leg would require the addition of an 8 lane East Leg, plus parallel cut and cover tunnels beneath 2nd and 3rd Streets NW/SW along the Center Leg, connected to a new preferably underground SW/SE Freeway with additional capacity for the SW Freeway, and to a new South Capitol Street corridor tunnel.

I-70S-I-95 convergence
1964 Route #11 (Railroad East-Sligo)

Combined with the respective inside the Beltway I-70S and I-95 interchanges with Maryland Route 410 would provide a useful bypass of normally 4 lane 410’s 2 lane bottleneck through Takoma Park. However the latter plans delete this feature.

It would have been interesting to see consideration of greater capacity, with a design capable of as much as 24 lanes, and with separate express carriageways, encased in a multi-cell cut and cover tunnel. Curiously, such a design was not drawn up, despite the utility of the cut and cover segments, particularly if such would bury and stack the express carriageways.

Such a cut and cover tunnel would accomplish and reconcile greater human activity within the existing footprint.

It would cost very little money compared to the various war budgets, and would serve the idea of greater evacuation route capacity that some within the government gave lip service to after 911.