The Foolish Surrender of the South Capitol Street Underpass

Every single design for the Douglass bridges messes up the issue. You can still have limited highway like bridge and make it pedestrian friendly.

Underground tunnels- continue the underpass right up to the beginning of the bridge in the left lanes while the right lanes would lead to street level; with that you could keep the park or use the land for something else while still allowing pedestrians a way to cross with little traffic.

Pretty much have a underpass that is decked over for 85% of the time from M Street to southeastern cross walks which would be moved an a entrance to the underpass would be there.

by kk on Dec 24, 2014 8:35 pm • link • report

Entirely eliminating the underpass is likely being pushed by the property owner of the only building surviving from prior to the recent planning of the south Capitol Street corridor that of St. Vincent De Paul Roman Catholic Church.

RX-  RETAIN the South Capitol Street underpass and extend it, widened with outside shoulders into a true cut and cover tunnel.

Consider extending it north, perhaps just past I Street.

Extend it south to the foot of the new South Capitol Street Bridge.

Consider a southbound underground off ramp to Potomac Avenue.

Design it to ultimately fit with a direct connection into the I-395 Center Leg that would accommodate a set of parallel deeper tunnelways extending beneath the Anacostia River to and from I-295.

South Capitol Street Corridor Tunnel?

The South Capitol Street corridor tunnel would eventually connect the southern end of the Center Leg southward to resurface south of the River at a reconstructed partially underground interchange with I-295 and the Suitland Parkway. It would initially surface to connect to the existing I-395 SW/SE/Center Leg interchange, before a later project to build the full connections to and with a replacement future underground interchange.

DCDOT

USNCPC

This tunnel appears in the 2002-2003 planning studies for the South Capitol Street Corridor.

It appears with 6 lanes (3 in each direction).

These illustrations are from the 2003 South Capitol Street Urban Design Study (NCPC) and the Urban Gateyway Study (DCOP).

2003 NCPC South Capitol Street Urban Design Study

http://www.ncpc.gov/publications_press/Press_Releases/2003/pr060503_2.html

http://www.ncpc.gov/publications_press/s_cap/part_1.pdf
http://www.ncpc.gov/publications_press/s_cap/part_2.pdf
http://www.ncpc.gov/publications_press/s_cap/part_3.pdf

2003 DCDOP South Capitol Street Gateway Study

http://ddot.dc.gov/ddot/cwp/view,a,1247,q,560731.asp
http://ddot.dc.gov/ddot/frames.asp?doc=/ddot/lib/ddot/information/documents/frames/south_capitol/pdf/sc_cover.pd

USNCPC
Extending the Legacy: Planning America's Capital for the 21st Century
South Capitol Street-Frederick Douglass Mall

The version above with the linear park was for essentially the eastern half of the 1997 Extending the Legacy concept for what would logically be named the South Capitol Street-Frederick Douglass Mall, with the western half being omitted ostensibly to avoid displacing existing residences.


Such a swath of green space would be ideal for crafting an underground freeway, with the space to comfortably accommodate maintaining South Capitol Street traffic throughout the construction.

The 2003 USNCPC South Capitol Street Urban Design Study would proclaim its goal to:

Establish a linear park along the length of a new South Capitol Street that will
connect the Mall and Capitol Hill with the Anacostia River.

Nonetheless both the full and the half Mall proposals have since been precluded by the government's un-reported acquiescence to Roman Catholic Church hierarchy against demolishing or even relocating the St. Vincent de Paul Church at the northeast corner of South Capitol and M Streets (the only building on the northbound side to survive the redevelopment), as well as the placement of Nationals Ballpark Stadium.

This is the South Capitol Street Corridor Tunnel? because of the planning uncertainties of the physical realities that prioritize accelerated real estate development with ZERO consideration of increased construction costs and complexities, including an apparent failure to preserve open space for ramp connections to I-395.


See the series of posts I wrote in 2006 about this tunnel's feasibilities:

http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_wwwsouthcapitolstreet_archive.html

And about the quiet betrayal of the U.S. Capital City's South Capitol Street-Frederick Douglass Mall:

http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_wwwsouthcapitolstreet_archive.html
http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_wwwsouthcapitolstreet_archive.html
http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_wwwsouthcapitolstreet_archive.html
http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/

The Anti Freeway Dogma's Indifference Towards The Consequences

Elitist highway transport haters
ex-Washington Post columnist Bob Levey and his wife Jane

Bob Levey

Jane Levey

This juxtaposition of attitudes expressed through NCPC – deny/lie D.C. I-95 and other un-built D.C. freeways and turn your backs upon the consequences – was reflected by that infamously erroneous article appearing in The Washington Times Magazine, and its authors Bob Levey and his wide Jane Fruendel Levey.during a follow up on line dialog

The cover page shows two photos: one of anti Three Sisters Bridge protests; the other the Capital Beltway/Route 1 interchange in Alexandria, Virginia. (That’s the very interchange that I designed the Alexandria Orb).

During the following on line dialog, someone asked the Leveys to write something about the Woodrow Wilson Bridge

Alexandria, Va.: A follow-up piece on the Virginia side would be equally fascinating, given the continuing controversies over the Wilson Bridge and I-66, not to mention 95/395/495. Hope that's something you can find time to pursue.

Bob Levey and Jane Freundel Levey: Time? What's that? It's a great idea. Maybe in 2009.

How “cute”. Let’s NOT write about any of this until after the WWB project is completed.

At times I notified them about the Alexandria Orb, and later, the South Capitol Street Frederick Douglass Mall, asking them to write about providing better highway design better harmonized into the surroundings serving more of society.

And they did not seem interested.

The message is lie about D.C. I-95 and turn your backs to the consequences.