1964 North Central Freeway Routing Mystery

JFK 1962 Plan

1963-1964 Study

Why would the 1964 North Central Freeway Engineering Feasibility Report not adhere to the 1962 Kennedy Administration B&O "Y" Route, particularly by veering away from the B&O railroad on a longer less direct route on a new swath displacing 471 houses in Takoma Park, Maryland?

This report starts with this letter, dated October 30, 1964, by E.J. Donnelly of J.E. Greiner Company Consulting Engineers, to Thomas F. Aires, Director of the Department of Highways and Traffic of the Government of he District of Columbia, and John B. Funk, State Roads Commission of Maryland.

In accordance with the terms of the District of Columbia Formal Agreement No. 2224, we submit herewith our Engineering Feasibility Report on the proposed North Central Freeway.

The Report resents the studies and investigations, data, conclusions and recommendations developed in selecting a route for the Freeway, and it includes drawings which illustrate the features of the proposed facility and delineate the various routes studied for the Project.

We have recommended as the route for the North-Central Freeway the alignment identified in the Report as Route 11 and described as the Railroad-East, Sligo Route. The recommended location lies east if and generally parallel to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Rhode Island Avenue northward and northwestward to Silver Spring. North of Silver Spring, it enters Sligo Park and traverses the west side of the park to University Boulevard, where the studies for the Project terminate.

We appreciate the cooperation that has been accorded us by the members of your staffs, the staffs of the District of Columbia and the Maryland Divisions of the Bureau of Public Roads and the staffs of the departments and agencies in the District of Columbia and Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties who have made data available to us for use in preparation of this report.

From the North Central Freeway Engineering Feasibility Report
at page 5

PRELIMINARY STUDIES

A basic operation in the procedure established for the Feasibility Report is the determination of all practical route locations for the Freeway within the delineated Corridor. Map studies, examinations of aerial photography taken in the spring of 1963, field reconnaissances of the entire area, and a review of recent highway engineering and transportation reports pertinent to the Washington Metropolitan area all aided in the selection of the feasible route locations. Sufficient information regarding public and private utilities was secured from the municipal departments, agencies and utility companies to locate the major installations which might affect the location of the Freeway.

During this preliminary study phase, the Consultant called upon the representatives of the departments and agencies responsible for overall planning, location and design of highways and planning of transportation facilities. Among such agencies were the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the National Capital Regional Planning Council, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the National Capital Transportation Agency.

In all, approximately thirty-five study lines segments and line segment connectors were selected as feasible locations for preliminary analysis. These were then re-examined in the field and analyzed in sufficient detail to determine which deserved further study and which warranted no further consideration. The factors used in the comparative analyses of these preliminary study lines included, as they were applicable: conformity to traffic desires; lengths and geometrics; locations for interchanging with other major arterial routes, either existing or planned; relationships to urban renewal planning or development; relationship to the central business districts and the surrounding area; impacts of the facility on the surrounding area; effects on landmarks and significant buildings; the number of families displaced and the quality of housing affected; the effect of industrial takings as opposed to residential takings; conformity to neutral or established dividing lines; and the magnitude of utility interference. The study lines are shown on Plate V of this report.

In order to avoid conflict with such important private and public service institutions as the Washington Medical Center, Veterans’ Hospital, U.S. Soldier’s Home and similar facilities in the central area of the Corridor, the preliminary study lines within the District were concentrated mainly in corridors between 14th and 5th Streets NW, between Kansas and New Hampshire Avenue, NW, and adjacent to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In Maryland, where such a concentration of such facilities does not exist, the alignments were widespread to explore all possibilities within the Corridor.

Route #11 at New Hampshire Avenue, veering away from the B&O railroad into Takoma Park

At page 14 it gives this description of the segment in the illustration above:

From New Hampshire Avenue, the line extends between the Masonic and Eastern Star Home and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and veers to the right at Kansas Avenue so as to follow a generally northerly direction parallel and east of North Capitol Street to the District of Columbia-Maryland Line. South of and before passing over Kansas Avenue, the line would affect several light industries and building material suppliers as well as well as individual and row dwellings of fair quality. North of Kansas Avenue, the line traverses a predominantly residential area immediately east of North Capitol Street which consists of duplex homes of fairly good quality. The western half of a large neighborhood playground and recreational area would also be taken. The residential area, which would be largely separated from the neighborhood it serves, could be retained and access restored.

I can not find any explanation in this report for this deviation from the B&O railroad corridor. Curiously "all possibilities within the Corridor" do NOT include the 1962 Kennedy Administration B&O route plan.

But the effect would be to tremendously inflame local North Central Freeway opposition.

Sam Abbott 1964

It took the subsequent 1966 study to present thing akin to the 1962 Kennedy Administration plan.

B&O Route North Central - NE Freeway: The Shifting Political Sands

1962 Kennedy Administration plan

The B&O "Y" Route concept initially enjoyed significant political support, and an apparent lack of any broad opposition upon its suggestion by the Kennedy Administration in 1962

The Committee of 100 on the Federal City supported it, with the added provisions that it consist of a pair of 4 lane freeways feeding into an 8 lane freeway.

1963-64 study: routes considered

Yet the 1964 report deviated sharply from this concept, and would do much to poison local opinion towards building any NCF; it was not until 1966 when a supplementary study was released that closely followed the 1962 concept.

1966 supplementary study: B&O Low Level Route

Both these 1962 and 1966 plans included highway and what became WMATA rail.

By that time (1965-66), significant swaths of people within the Federal government changed their position by 180 degrees. This included the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, which went on record against a B&O Route North Central Freeway, based upon the negative reaction of the 1964 plan with its significant deviations from the railroad.

The 1966 plan lacked these objections, and at that time had the support of the D.C. City Council and the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). Yet the B&O Route North Central Freeway (and the East leg of the Inner Loop) was to be challenged by a law suit alleging that the planning for these highways was illegal for lacking DC City Council and USNCPC approval, prior to that being the case! The suit was filed when both of these entities supported the plan.

It was not until 1968 that USNCPC withdrew their support for the North Central - Northeast Freeway, with their erroneous conclusion that the facility would merely add another arterial when in fact it would introduce a super-arterial in a broad area without one.

February 6, 1967: presentation of the new B&O Low Level North Central Freeway plan to NCPC

May 1967: NCPC approves 1^st link of North Central Freeway

October 1967: NCPC approves final link of North Central Freeway 8-2

February 1968: law suit decision by U.S. Court of Appeals

February 17, 1970: D.C. City Council votes against North Central Freeway

September 17, 1970: legislation in Congress in the House Public Works Committee ordering North Central Freeway construction.

April 9, 1972: Maryland drops I-70S

February 1973: Maryland drops I-95 by the Northwest Branch Park corridor.

July 16, 1973: Maryland drops I-95 via the PEPCO right of way.

The justification given for this 180 degree turn has been given as avoiding the shifting of the burden from wealthier to poorer areas. According to the unfortunately error-ridden November 2000 article in The Washington Post Magazine it was because Takoma Park's Sam Abbott pulled a guilt trip on Peter Craig by telling him that he only cared about the wealthier people to Rock Creek Park's west

However, such is what occurred by doing just that.

Canceling the B&O route North Central Freeway would translate in one way or another to shift the traffic burden even more disproportionately along the east side of the Anacostia River through Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8, along D.C.’s Route 295 Kenilworth Avenue Freeway: which the Committee of 100 on the Federal City favored placing an even greater share of the burden with a 1968 plan to route inside the Beltway I-95 via the Northwest Branch Park corridor, to route I-95 upon that same Kenilworth Avenue corridor, and then to a new bridge to Virginia to connect to the I-95 (today's I-395) Shirley Highway via a Four Mile Run Expressway.

This blogger is unaware of any advocacy by the Committee of 100 towards mitigating this highway's local impacts by covering it as tunnel.

1966-71 I-70S Silver Spring

1971 I-95 New Hampshire Avenue - PEPCO

The dotted lines indicate the PEPCO route extension along New Hampshire Avenue, which was offered with the cancellation of the I-70S segment of the B&O Route North Central Freeway, despite the superior geometry for a convergence.

1966-71 I-95 Fort Drive - Northwest Branch Park

1971 D.C. B&O I-70S (I-270) Takoma

I-70S North Central Freeway- Takoma area

District of Columbia Interstate System, by DeLeuw, Cather Associates and Harry Wesse & Associates, LTD, 1971, prepared for the District of Columbia Department of Highways and Traffic, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

This represents the last formal planning study design for the B&O Low Level Route I-70S Low Level proposal along today's Red Line in the vicinity of the Rhode Island Avenue and Brookland/CUA WMATA Stations.

Including a tunnel segment, this planning for the Takoma Park area segment of the North Central Freeway involved a change in the proposed roadway elevation, replacing the elevated berm configuration (of a pair of 3 lane roadways flanking the existing railroad berm), with a cut (of a pair of 3 lane roadways together along the existing railway berm's east side). Note the building immediately left of the word METRO, which has some space between it and the railway berm, unlike the "Elevation 314" erected there later.

Most of this 1971 design I-70S Takoma tunnel would have been built within the footprint of the demolition of the WMATA Red Line construction. To the south and to the north it would displace a number of houses, including, not insignificantly the landmark Cady-Lee Mansion at the corner of Piney Branch and Eastern Avenue (directions), which was built in 1884 and the northernmost house within D.C. on this railway corridor's east side. While both the 1966 and 1971 plans would have indirectly displaced the houses further to the north along Takoma Avenue in Maryland, only the 1971 plan would have displaced the Cady-Lee Mansion: an absolute NO-NO to anyone aware of its architectural significance.

This 1971 study does not provide illustrations of the connecting Silver Spring segment. I have not seen a drawing of such, and here present the 1966 B&O low level route option, with its tunneled segments in and near Blair Park. Since this 1966 design has southbound I-70S shift to the west side of the railroad to avoid the buildings of Montgomery Community College that face the railroad's east side, my guess is that the 1971 version would have added another tunnel segment to bring southbound I-70S to the east side of the railroad. Doing this would have had I-70S directly displace the houses facing the railroad along Takoma Avenue, which the 1966 plan had I-70S do do indirectly by relocating Takoma Avenue to the east.

1966 B&O Route North Central Freeway
Blair Park/Montgomery Community College

1966 B&O Route North Central Freeway
Takoma, D.C.

Due to the reactionary nature of resentment politics, and the doctrine it here served, no subsequent design modifications were ever formally considered

1971 D.C. B&O I-95 Brookland/CUA (Catholic University of America)- Rhode Island Avenue

I-95 North Central Freeway- Brookland/CUA-Rhode Island Avenue area

District of Columbia Interstate System, by DeLeuw, Cather Associates and Harry Wesse & Associates, LTD, 1971, prepared for the District of Columbia Department of Highways and Traffic, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

This represents the last formal planning study design for the B&O Low Level Route I-95 Low Level proposal along today's Red Line in the vicinity of the Rhode Island Avenue and Brookland/CUA WMATA Stations.

These plans would have removed and replaced 34 dwellings in western Brookland near the railroad's east side where this highway route would have ran from the vicinity of Catholic University of America and to the south. Unlike the 1964 and 1960 plans it would spare the historic Brooks Mansion.

It would have furthermore spared Brooks Mansion from the noise of the traffic of this 8-10 lane depressed highway, as this 1971 proposal has this as a cut and cover tunnel extending from near Rhode Island Avenue to a few hundred feet north of Michigan Avenue. Under this plan the space atop would be used for replacement dwellings, retail stores (including a supermarket on the north side of Michigan Avenue), and community uses.

1966 North Central Freeway Study

This general concept of covering I-95 in the Brookland/CUA area also appeared in the 1966 B&O Route North Central Freeway study, though oriented further to the north, extending fully north of the main campus of Catholic University of America, but not as far south as Rhode Island Avenue.

As these plans included highway with railways, the decision to cancel the B&O Route North Central/Northeast Freeway left Washington D.C. with a transportation network that would be less multi-model.