What Others Got From Siphoning the Urban Deck Funds

Under the deal engineered between the U.S. Federal Highway Authority and the City of Alexandria, the latter was to receive millions of dollars diverted from the urban deck.

This would have been an ideal law suit for the Coalition for a Sensible Bridge and Covington and Burling, the law firm that did the 1999 law suit. I approached CSB but not C&B, figuring that the law firm should be approached with local support. Alas, CSB, though polite, was apparently intellectually incapable of moving past its anti quantitative thinking (the number of lanes), to a more holistic qualitative thinking.

This was even after they lost their quantitatively based law suit. Once they lost their suit to limit the project to 10 through lanes, and once the parallel effort for a river crossing via tunnel had failed, my options of the longer urban deck and the "Orb" roadway configurations were their only remaining "cards" to play. Yet they simply folded.

Instead, the government, including local and federal would turn their backs on those in greatest need for highway environmental mitigation – the neighborhoods nearest the highway – with the funds diverted for such things as new side walks elsewhere, and a project to improve the waterfront landing areas of Prince Street, the east-west road that’s one block south of Alexandria City Hall.

(d) Julie Crenshaw, 816 Queen Street, spoke to docket item no. 12 which was on the docket for the November 14, 2000 legislative meeting. This item related to a change in the docking operations plan to add a commercial boat slip at the City Marina. She expressed concern that an addition of another slip would create a safety issue.

(e) Van Van Fleet, 26 Wolfe Street, also spoke to the addition of another boat slip at the City Marina. In addition, he suggested disbanding the Alexandria Waterfront Committee.

(f) Brian Buzzell, One Wilkes Street, representing the Waterfront Alliance, spoke to the waterfront improvement project. With respect to the Old Town Yacht Basin, he recommended that City Manager Sunderland chair a working task group of citizens and civic associations with City staff input to start working to come up with a plan that makes sense, that has citizen input and is affordable.

Mayor Donley requested that Mr. Buzzell get together with City Manager Sunderland and him to work out some type of a task force arrangement to explore some of the recommendations.

(g) Sarita Schotta, 104 Prince Street, spoke to some issues concerning the waterfront. She personally feels that this comes from the lack of direct contact with Council and senior staff. She is looking forward to the arrival of Ms. Fogarty. Mr. Baier has been very receptive. Ms. Schotta stated that the Waterfront Alliance will be coming to Council with a formal proposal of how they think they can work more directly with Council and with the senior staff.

From Scott Kozel:

New Woodrow Wilson Bridge Clears Legal Hurdles

There was a lawsuit filed against the selected build alternative. The City of Alexandria was one of the plaintiffs, but they withdrew from the litigation without going to court when the project officials made design compromises with the city in March 1999. The other plaintiff in the lawsuit was a citizens activist/obstructionist group in Alexandria called Coalition for a Sensible Bridge. The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in an attempt to force further planning and environmental studies on a smaller 10-lane design that had been previously rejected by project officials during the project development process. A U.S. District Court judge made a flawed decision on April 13, 1999, and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on 3 out of the 4 counts in the lawsuit, ruling that the 10-lane design must receive more intensive planning and environmental studies, and the judge even engaged in "highway engineering from the bench" by making comments in his ruling document that the project officials should consider a fixed high-level bridge instead of a drawbridge. There were clear aesthetic and engineering reasons for project officials selecting the 70-foot vertical navigational clearance drawbridge instead of the 135-foot vertical navigational clearance fixed high-level bridge, and the judge went outside of his job description when he made those comments, since his job is to deal with the rule of law as it pertains to highway development projects. The defendant (FHWA) appealed the ruling. A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 3-judge panel completely overturned the U.S. District Court judge's ruling, 8 months later, on December 17, 1999.

The Washington Post had an article on Friday, December 17, 1999, "Appeals Court Clears Way for Wilson Bridge". Excerpts follow (blue text):
A federal appeals panel ruled today that plans for a new 12-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge can go forward as scheduled, reversing a lower court's decision that threatened to scuttle or seriously delay the project. The ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was a victory for the Federal Highway Administration, which wants to begin construction on the $1.9 billion project in October. Plans call for the first span of the bridge to be completed by 2004, and officials say they are racing against time: the current six-lane structure, built in 1961, is deteriorating from overuse. The project's future has been in doubt since last April, when U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin ruled federal transportation officials failed to adequately assess the new bridge's impact on the environment and historic sections of Old Town Alexandria. In particular, Sporkin said officials should have more fully considered a 10-lane alternative. In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge appeals panel found that Sporkin misinterpreted requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act. The judges agreed with transportation planners who said the 10-lane alternative would not have been sufficient to meet the region's long-term traffic and safety needs. The 12-lane version, they said, provided a reasonable approach to the problems.

The U.S. Supreme Court rarely agrees to hear appeals on cases of this type (lawsuits against location and design decisions by transportation agencies). The plaintiffs asked the Supremes to hear an appeal, but the Supremes refused, thus ending the lawsuit.

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

Rubber Stamp Resolution by U.S. National Capital Planning Commission Endorsing 11th Hour post EIS deletion of environmental mitigation

This is N.C.P.C.'s rubber stamp resolution for this November 1, 2001 meeting endorsing the 11th hour deletion of environmental mitigation:

WOODROW WILSON BRIDGE REPLACEMENT
REVISED DESIGN PLANS FOR THE URBAN DECK
AT WASHINGTON STREET (GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY)

City of Alexandria, Virginia
Report to the Federal Highway Administration and the National Park Service
November 1, 2001

Abstract

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has requested that the Commission review revised preliminary and final design plans for one element of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Replacement Project related to mitigation of the approved bridge design. This feature is the urban deck overpass at Washington Street in Alexandria, Virginia. Highway officials began constructing the foundations for the new bridge in the fall of 2000 and pier construction will begin in late 2001. The submitted revised design plans convey a design effort providing a unified appearance for this western element of the Virginia portion of the river crossing. The FHWA will continue to work with all stakeholders, including the Commission, to refine elements of the preliminary and final design plans for the Jones Point Park and Maryland Potomac

River Waterfront Community Park as those sections of the Woodrow Wilson Replacement Bridge project move toward finalization.

Authority

Pursuant to Section 5 of the National Capital Planning Act of 1952, as amended (40 USC 71d).

Commission Action

The Commission:

Recognizes the FHWA’s inclusive efforts in developing the final design plans for the urban deck at Washington Street as part of the Wilson Bridge Replacement, and encourages FHWA to continue this level of thoroughness in the development of both Jones Point Park and the Maryland portion of the Bridge Project as it is coordinated with, and submitted to, this Commission.

http://www.ncpc.gov/actions/pdf/2001/WWBridge11_01.PDF

How Things Went at the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission: November 1, 2001

I was not alone in my pleas at the November meeting, where I was joined by Alexandria resident Ed Ford. He had purchased and moved into the southern-most house along the east side of St. Asplund Street which ends at the St. Mary’s graveyard immediately next to the Capital Beltway ascent to the bridge. Mr. Ford, having seen the urban deck plans covering this area of the Beltway alongside his house, relied upon these plans in making his offer to purchase that house, prior to the changes in planning. The reduction in the deck would reduce his property’s anticipated value. Having looked for support from various entities in Alexandria that one might think might be helpful, Mr. Ford was quite pessimistic. He hoped to do better before the N.C.P.C., which had worked to increase the traffic on the Beltway by Mr. Ford's neighborhood by canceling I-95 through Washington, D.C., and hence should not turn their backs upon Mr. Ford's neighborhood's plight.

Both of us spoke before N.C.P.C. Mr. Ford was polite enough to note to the N.C.P.C. that he was speaking for his neighborhood, and that they saw no need to bother the N.C.P.C. with a lengthy list of speakers.

But N.C.P.C. would certainly turn their backs upon Mr. Ford's neighborhood, especially N.C.P.C. member Richard L. Friedman (appointed by the preceding U.S. President Clinton whose term ended January 20, 2001), who was anxious to end our pleas. He seemed quite uninterested and unconcerned about our interests and concerns. He moved to end discussion and vote, which they did.

Like before none voted against the deck reduction; but unlike before we got one abstention, the D.C. delegate, Ellen McCarthy.

http://www.committeeof100.net/pdf/test/McCarthytestimony.pdf

I dropped off about 25 or 30 of my Orb “See and Compare” buttons that inspired The Alexandria/Fairfax Journal’s December 18, 2000 page one coverage for each of N.C.P.C.’s members. I figured I would hear back from some, but I heard back from not even a single one.

How about extending Washington, D.C.'s monumental core beauty to a portion of the Capital Beltway? Nah, just block off the southern waterfront instead.

That's some N.C.P.C..

An Example For the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission: Dream Ahead to 2023 -- live, work, play atop I-405

Since the concept of a covered highway provides a more multi-dimensional use of land for benefiting more people, I attached this example to my statement above to the United States National Capital Planning Commission:

Visions for putting a roof over the freeway and reclaiming 26 Portland blocks will be presented today to a convention of landscape architects

Monday, October 5 1998

By Janet Christ of The Oregonian staff

In this city of visioning, dreaming and imagination, we are being asked to imagine yet again.

To project ourselves 25 years ahead in Portland and live in what is now freeway airspace.

By then, a swath of air through the west side may be transformed into 26 reclaimed city blocks.

Think of a brilliant West Burnside "bright lights" district, a pedestrian and cycling crossing that defies weaving freeway pasta below and a southern traffic connection that brings sense to six roads at the top of Southwest Broadway.

These are among a group of detailed visions for putting a roof over much of the Interstate 405 freeway and creating new land for city life.

Mayor Vera Katz will present the concepts today at the Oregon Convention Center where the American Society of Landscape Architects is having its annual meeting.

Sparked by Katz's February address to the city that promoted reconnecting neighborhoods split by the freeway, the architects' Oregon chapter took on designing the air above the 38-block-long ditch as a gift to Portland, the society's 1998 conference host.

With information from public workshops and sessions this summer, designers added their ideas and created a 20-foot model and sketches.

Paul Morris of McKeever/Morris Inc., a Portland planning and design firm, said the free six-month study is worth about $200,000 in work from the team of 30 design, planning and engineering professionals. It is one of three community-assistance team projects donated.

Katz said the City Council will be asked to approve a final concept plan in late November. And that she really does expect to see it happen.

Knowing what the development, engineering and even air rights costs are for such a mammoth project is still a ways off. At this point, when capping the freeway has not even been approved, no specific means of financing has surfaced.

"We must conduct a thorough economic analysis related to cost and market conditions and determine the level of interest of private sector investment, the mayor said, claiming that the value of freeway air space will increase greatly during the next 25 years with a rising population.

As one example, the architects study estimates a tax income of $625,429 based on a proposed section of 195,000 square feet of commercial space in the west end.

Katz also sees the project fitting well with regional plans for the next 25 years of life in the central city. The freeway lid concept came up in the 1988 Central City Plan. It is a way, the mayor said, to allow density within the urban growth boundary while taking the pressure off neighborhoods that prefer the current quality of life.

Morris said projections are that the 26 reclaimed city blocks will include six acres for parks and recreation,1,000 housing units, 50,000 square feet for civic and exhibition space, 650,000 square feet of commercial space, 1,800 permanent jobs and 2,200 parking spaces for existing needs and future demand. "It's a series of sutures. It's like we're healing," Morris said. The freeway divided the west side for 3.6 miles from Northwest Glisan Street to Southwest Fourth Avenue at Portland State University, clearing homesand stores that sustained largely Italian and Jewish communities.

Katz, who came to Portland the year before propertieswere condemned and the ditch dug in 1965, said reconnecting the streets is overdue and that pedestrians no longer should suffer inhumane walks on freeway overpasses.

Starting in the Northwest Pearl District, the concept map offers a three-block sports and recreation center with grocery store and commercial space on the ground floor and a covered soccer field on the top story.

Going south, people come into the bright lights entertainment district, which Morris describes as a Times Square. It includes a plaza surrounded by cafes, restaurants, night clubs, shops, offices, housing and parking. The site also is the doorway into the downtown business district

Much of the pedestrian routes are covered, so rain won't alter walking plans

Continuing, the concept shows office and retail blocks -- a mixed-use area to complement the light-rail system on Southwest Yamhill and Morrison streets. Main Street Plaza comes up next, three blocks connecting the Cultural District and PSU with Goose Hollow and Lincoln High School. Next to the Great Lawn -- more than a block of green open space -- looms high-rise housing.

More retail space, a civic and office center and high-end condominiums with scenic views are next in line.

And then comes the interchange of Interstates 5 and 405 -- the city's western portal -- dwarfed by an arched crossing for walking or biking. Along this section, freeway slopes are landscaped and terraced to capture stormwater.

Near the university, a new market square is created with four blocks of housing and plaza. It's a new neighborhood center, Morris said. And where the South Park Blocks just end beyond the university campus, a new events space is created, and more student housing rises.

At the south end -- or entrance -- of the project, a round-about connects six roads in a traffic circle whose center is open over the freeway. The nearby developments follow the design, arching toward the circle.

The capped blocks will stimulate other development and activity, radiating toward either side, Morris said. A13-block capping project in Duluth, Minn., finished five years ago, stimulated nearly $1 billion in private development for that city, he said. Building it cost about $220 million.

"Developers have personally told me that capping the freeway will lead to the redevelopment of many underutilized parcels bordering the freeway," Katz said.

But where to begin? Morris said that when public groups looked at specific sections along the freeways path, and when separate groups of architects and developers also were asked to pinpoint crucial sites, all three groups fingered the same top two ideas in the west end: the Civic Stadium areas mixed-use blocks by light rail, and the bright lights entertainment center.

Douglas Willinger Comments to U.S. National Capital Planning Commission: March 1, 2001

Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project

The 11^th hour Betrayal of the Promise of the Urban Deck

Humanize Highways, or simply pushing the problem away

Douglas A. Willinger

Takoma Park Highway Design Studio

DO NOT SANCTION 11^th HOUR BACK-ROOM POLITICAL DEAL TO “TRADE AWAY” ENVIRONMENTAL MITIGATION LONG PROMISED TO NEIGHBORHOODS NEAREST TO HIGHWAY FOR POLITICAL WISH LIST OF PROJECTS ELSEWHERE HAVING LITTLE TO NOTHING TO DO WITH MITIGATION.

IDEA OF SHORTENING THE URBAN DECK WAS OVERWHELMINGLY REJECTED BY CITIZEN”S SPP ON AUGUST 26, 2000. Planning officials had to bypass citizen’s Stakeholders Participants Panel in planning new reduced deck proposals, during 12-14 period when no such SPP meetings were held from May 1999 to August 2000.

For noise abatement and hence preserving the quality of life fro neighborhoods nearest to I-495, the Urban Deck must extend fully east of Hunting Towers, as did the original 1994 design which predated the 1995-1999 1,100 fott design and the late 1999 700 foot “amended: design.

DELETING DECK AS REQUESTED BY OFFICIALS IN VIRGINIA WOULD PAY HOMAGE TO STYE OF HIGHWAY PLANNING WITH INSUFFICENT REGARD TO NEIGHBORS IN BUILT UP AREAS. People in Washington, D.C. stopped that sort of highway planning over 30 years ago; why should the N.C.P.C. then sanction the taking away of envirnental mitigation at 11^th hour?

IDEALLY, ADAPT the citizen’s alternative design proposal, so incorporating the Route 1 interchange with the Urban Deck, ALEXANDRIA ORB.

(seen at www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com)

Roughly 25 years ago, with planning stopped for the remaining 2/3erds of the highway network planned for D.C. and inside the Beltway in Maryland, this included abandoning any and all plans for I-95 into and through Washington D.C., leaving its Center Leg, what we now call the I-395 3^rd Street Tunnel truncated about 3 blocks from two major railway corridors to the north and to the east Instead, the 1970s solution to the matter of D.C. and I-95 was to re-sign the Capital Beltway between the I-95 interchanges in Greenbelt (with its truncated roadways pointing southerly) and Springfield, as I-495/”I-95” including about 2 expansion joints worth of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge that pass through D.C.’s extreme southern tip. By the 1990s, this was followed with planning for what we are about to embark upon, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Replacement Project widening the bridge and with it, whether segmented or at once, widening that portion of the Beltway, in order to accommodate a level of service for more than 220,000 vehicles daily.

As environmental mitigation for this road widening project, with its improved ramps and new roadway configuration of a pair of barrier separated carriage-ways in each direction, much like the 12-14 lane New Jersey Turnpike in Newark, or South Chicago’s 14 lane Dan Ryan Expressway -- planning officials from near the start included the Washington Street Urban Deck. Known in the western U.S. as a “Freeway Lid”, this would deck or cover over a portion of the Capital Beltway approach in southern Old Town Alexandria, immediately alongside the neighborhoods of Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Church Street, as well as the historic sites of Freedman’s and St. Mary’s Cemeteries, where an upwards of 17 lanes of highway and ramps would rise/descend to meet the new spans This freeway lid or urban deck would cover over this area of the Capital Beltway, providing sound proofing, and a physical reconnect to tie area back together. Indeed, concerted citizen effort elsewhere has led to their adaptation to numerous highway projects, including I-10 in downtown Phoniex, Arizona, and I-90 in East Seattle and Mercer Island, Washington State, and preliminary planning has already begun for future projects such as capping I-405 in Portland, Oregon.

As always promised and shown as an integral part of the Wilson Bridge Project since the mid 1990s, this cover was to extend from its canted western edge from Alfred Street to just east of the nearest wing of the nearest surviving Hunting Tower, for a distance of about 1,100 feet, though originally it would have extended fully past Hunting Towers (by an additional 100-150 feet easterly), bringing it to 1,200-1,250 feet, providing a multiple-purpose of a sloped viewing platform of Jones Point Park, and the Potomac, and critically needed sound abatement at the 8 story high Hunting apartment towers as close as 15-25 feet from the 12-17 lanes of highway. As noise travels upwards and simple vertical sound walls ineffective in said context, the situation of Hunting Towers is particularly unique in requiring the more effective sound control of a full highway cover. Despite its shortcomings for the easternmost wing of the nearest Hunting Tower, this 1,100 foot design was promised since before during and after selection process, culminating in the September 1996 decision for a pair of 6 lane drawbridge spans. To facilitate citizen input, Stakeholders’ Participants Panels were established, including one for the Route 1 interchange and the Urban Deck, with meetings held regularly up to Spring, 1999, with a 14 month hiatus, with no additional meetings until August 26, 2000.

It would be during this 15-16 month hiatus that project officials, without the advice, consent or even necessarily the knowledge of the Route 1 Interchange/Urban Deck SPP, would hack away about 80% of the Urban Deck’s traditional length, taking it from 1,100 feet, to 700 feet at the end of the EIS process, and then to a mere 200 wide overpass, after the end of the EIS process, and all 3 years after the selection of the 12 lane drawbridge crossing,

The 700 foot design would first publicly appear in the December 22, 1999 Draft EIS. That document would show this “amended” design, deleting decking reducing length from 1,100 to 700 feet, leaving nearest-most Hunting Tower completely exposed to 14-16 lanes of Beltway approach. No SPP panel is ever called to comment upon this new proposal, nor was a SPP meeting ever called for introducing the 700 foot design., despite its clearly far greater environmental impact upon the eastern Hunting Tower.

The 200 foot design (actually two: a curved “Greetings” concept, and a smaller straight-edged “Streetscape”) would first publicly appear in late summer, 2000, with a set of renderings, dated August 14, 2000 of the 700 foot and the 2 new 200 foot designs (with the drawings of the 200 foot designs having much of the area of Hunting Towers conveniently cropped). These proposals for a deck a mere 200 feet in length, would hence leave large areas of southern Alexandria that had been scheduled to be next to relatively quiet landscaped green park space would now be next to an uncovered 14-17 lanes of Beltway and ramps, in the area immediately between Hunting Terrace and the Church Street neighborhoods and Freedman’s Cemetery to the west of Washington Street, and between St, Mary’s Cemetery and Hunting Towers to the east. On August 26, 2000, at the first Route 1 interchange/Urban Deck Stakeholder Participant’s Panel held in over a year, Wilson Bridge Project officials presented the 200 foot design concepts to that SPP and the members of the public present. At that meeting’s end, when asked for their formal recommendation, the Route 1 interchange/urban Deck SPP formally rejected these concepts, as well as the general concept of shortening the Deck, doing so overwhelmingly.

Officials would respond by pretending that this rejection never happened: the Wilson Bridge Project web site would not report this August 26 2000 SPP vote, while the Alexandria City Manager would issue a memorandum, dated October 20, 2000 which errors by stating (at page 10) that:

“The Urban Deck Stakeholder Panel, as a group, has not been presented with the plans for the smaller deck because they have not meet.” [NOT!]

The October 20, 2000 Alexandria City Manager’s report favoring chopping the Urban Deck would be full of errors of logic and fact. For instance, it rejects decking west of Washington Street because of the stated undesirability of a soccer field next to Freedman’s Cemetery with 50 foot high lamps and soccer nets, while continuing that “the proposed topography would require the walls supporting the deck to be very tall, creating an additional barrier rather than knitting this area together. Yet this City Manager’s report states nothing about the things that would result from deleting the deckage, such as the 50-100 foot high highway lamps (as seen at interstate highway interchanges), the noise of an upwards of 17 lanes of traffic, let along the vertical sound walls that would loom 20+ feet over the Cemetery, instead of the only 3-5 foot high terrace that would mark the transition from the Deck and the Cemetery. (Extending the Deck further west as a part of the Alexandria Orb proposal would meanwhile require a terrace 6 inches high as the transition from the extended Deck and Orb at 38 feet above sea level, and Church Street where it is 37.5 feet above sea level.) Apparently, those buying into the new chopped deck proposals did not bother looking at a topographical map to confirm any of its proponent’s claims.

Numerous citizens testified against the concept of denying long promised mitigation and the concept of trading it for other projects having little or nothing to do with mitigating the effects upon the environment from the widened I-495 Beltway at the southern edge of Old Town Alexandria.

Nonetheless, at the November 18, 2000 Alexandria City Public Hearing, Mayor Donley would announce that he and the City Council had already decided to vote unanimously in favor of the new proposal, which includes a $14 million windfall for a new recreation center built alongside new developments being built about 1 mile away from the neighborhoods most affected by the widened highway.

Those promoting chopping the Deck overlook:

A low relative cost: only 3.18% of $2.1 billion Wilson Bridge Project for $66 million 1,100 foot design

A Progressive Solution sought after in other areas, including Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Phoneix, Arizona.

Improve property values of properties

Indeed, ideas not even considered include:

A longer Urban Deck, designed to restore Alexandria’s access to its southern water front at Hunting Creek

Electrostatic precipitator technology for filtration for traffic emissions

Orb design for Route 1 interchange (Please see the Alexandria Orb site at www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com and incorporate into this record)

The Alexandria Orb design proposal was created in 1998, first seen by some Project officials in late November 1998, and copyrighted December 22, 1998, a full year prior to the December 1999 Draft EIS, with the Alexandria Orb website up and running since April 6, 2000. The Orb proposal would extend and incorporate deck with interchange, employing latter to create new parklands.

Meanwhile, planning officials have worked in the opposite direction, to remove promised environmental mitigation, in what can NOT be called a pursuit of the best design. Indeed, while other major highway projects have pursued numerous design options (for instance, the interchange design process for the I-93 Charles River Crossing of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project produced 26 design proposals for interchanges), the Wilson Bridge Project would consistently show only one basic design for the Route 1 interchange. Other highway officials have been pursuing covering over highways for the sake of neighboring communities (Please see article below “Dream Ahead to 2023—live, work, play, atop I-405”). Yet officials in Virginia would sell out communities nearest to highway for political deal for wish list of projects generally nowhere near the highway.

Do we honor our commitments, or do we let them succumb to 11^th hour back-room political deals, filled with letters of support that place environmental factors lower than their wish list of projects having little or nothing to do with mitigation? Should the Virginia’ Millennial Gateway be an extension of the grace of the monumental core, or shall it look like the Springfield interchange or the New Jersey Turnpike alongside Newark Airport?!

Please vote NO on reducing the Urban Deck.

Thank You

Douglas A. Willinger

Takoma Park Highway Design Studio

How Things Went at the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission: March 1, 2001

Following the reduced deck’s debate-less, unanimous approval by the Alexandria City Councils, its next step was its formal approval by the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission. N.C.P.C. considered and followed through with this in two separate public meetings in 2001, one in March, the other in November. I got to plea my case before N.C.P.C. at both meetings. I remember the FHWA’s John Gerner being at the first meeting.

Although I see the name of then D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams within the NCPC membership list, I do not recall seeing him when I spoke at either event. I do remember seeing him there just prior to one of these events, along with a television crew for something that the Mayor was to announce (I don’t remember what), that left immediately after the Mayor did.

They would vote in favor of the deck reduction, without debate, and, unanimously.

Ossified Entrenched Bureaucracy Types

Alexandria Orb interchange designed on spec for Alexandria and the Commonwealth of Virginia by Douglas A. Willinger

Newsgroups: misc.transport.road, dc.urban-planning

From: Rush Wickes ...@rush-w.com>

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 09:37:37 -0500

Subject: Re: Woodrow Wilson Bridge: OPEN LETTER of December 16, 2000 to the Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission: Potential Environmental Benefits of Urban Deck (Freeway Lid) and filtration Regarding Noise and Emissions

On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 13:21:52 GMT, "Douglas A. Willinger" wrote:

- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

>Best Regards

>Douglas A. Willinger
>Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
>Alexandria...@HighwayAndCommunities.com

>Please see the Alexandria Orb at
>http://www.highwaysandcommunities.com

>cc:
>Alexandria Mayor Donley
>Alexandria City Council
>National Park Service
>National Trust for Historic Preservation
>Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission,
>Alexandria Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission
>P.O. Box 178, Alexandria Virginia, 22313
>Alexandria Archaeological Commission
>105 North Union Street
>Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery
>dc.urban-planning
>alt.planning.urban
>alt.planning.transportation
>misc.transport.road
>vg.general
>The Washington Post

I brought up the 'urban helix' proposal innocently at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in January. The opinion on Mr. Willinger's behavior from folks tied in with the Wilson Bridge study team was that it was 'crank like'. Just an observation.

--

Rush Wickes

Blacksburg, VA

Newsgroups: misc.transport.road, dc.urban-planning

From: Robert ...@gte.net>

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 00:30:01 GMT

Local: Mon, Feb 12 2001 7:30 pm

Subject: Re: Woodrow Wilson Bridge: OPEN LETTER of December 16, 2000 to the Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission: Potential Environmental Benefits of Urban Deck (Freeway Lid) and filtration Regarding Noise and Emissions

In article <00tf8tsros2bikqhr5vfso8l45pn90b...@4ax.com>, Rush Wickes

- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

...@rush-w.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 13:21:52 GMT, "Douglas A. Willinger"
> ...@idt.net> wrote:

>

> >Best Regards

> >Douglas A. Willinger
> >Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
> >Alexandria...@HighwayAndCommunities.com

> >Please see the Alexandria Orb at
> >http://www.highwaysandcommunities.com

> >cc:
> >Alexandria Mayor Donley
> >Alexandria City Council
> >National Park Service
> >National Trust for Historic Preservation
> >Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission,
> >Alexandria Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission
> >P.O. Box 178, Alexandria Virginia, 22313
> >Alexandria Archaeological Commission
> >105 North Union Street
> >Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery
> >dc.urban-planning
> >alt.planning.urban
> >alt.planning.transportation
> >misc.transport.road
> >vg.general
> >The Washington Post

> I brought up the 'urban helix' proposal innocently at the
> Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in January. The
> opinion on Mr. Willinger's behavior from folks tied in with the Wilson
> Bridge study team was that it was 'crank like'. Just an observation.

Just another observation: Mr. Willinger's ideas are well thought out carefully prepared, clearly presented and innovative. It would be a common reaction from ossified entrenched bureaucracy types to nervously dismiss such as "crank." Remember that the Orb addresses a number of points that were originally considered intractable with the WWB land approaches. Any idea that saves footprint should be considered.

Just another observation. I don't agree with a lot of Doug's ideas but I know better than to dismiss them. I've also been on the other side of the coin and have empathy for his position of "not invented here."

http://groups.google.com/group/dc.urban-planning/browse_frm/thread/f4ab717c90cade6f/1278aa9189a1e4f1?lnk=gst&amp;amp;q=dc.urban-planning&rnum=6&hl=en#1278aa9189a1e4f1