ECTC VC Marion Barry For Private Use Eminent Domain

Marion Barry, now a member of the Washington, D.C. City Council, and the Vice Chairman of the 1960s-70s organization, the 'Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis' (ECTC) which strictly opposed grade separated highways providing a vehicular alternative to surface streets, FAVORS the use of eminent domain for PRIVATE use, to the east of the Anacostia River.

http://anacostianow.blogspot.com/2008/10/eminent-domain.html

It was the ECTC which conducted protests over the demolition of 69 dwellings (reduced to 34 in 1970) in western Brookland, D.C. near the railroad tracks that run alongside Catholic University of America, for PUBLIC use eminent domain for the B&O Route low level North Central Freeway, which was to be the sole north-south northern radial such facility within Washington, D.C.

Union Station Centennial

Grand Arc Headpiece

http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2008/10/union-station-celebrates-its-100th.html

From 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday, Amtrak will be displaying historic rail cars. Union Station Redevelopment Corporation will be displaying historic photos.

AP has a story, "Washington's Union Station celebrates 100 years."

Don't forget the in-process dissertation about Union Station by Bill Wright. He's a great writer. Check out his website.

Congress for 'New' Urbanism Seeks Eliminating SE Freeway and 11th Street Bridge

Advocates Removing Evacuation Route, if not increase vehicular - pedestrian conflict!

http://www.cnu.org/highways/freewayswithoutfutures

10. 11th Street Bridges and the Southeast Freeway, Washington D.C.

The Southeast Freeway is a 1.39-mile stretch of freeway running through Washington D.C. built in the late 1960s. It connects Interstate 395 to Interstate 295 at the 11th Street Bridges and was prevented from continuing west due to local opposition at the time. To address congestion and traffic routing problems at the interchange connecting the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the Anacostia Freeway (I-295) over the Anacostia River, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began investigating how to reconstruct and reconfigure the interchange at the 11th Street Bridges.

The Concerned Citizens of Eastern Washington, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, some of whom were involved with the freeway revolt in the 1960s, began investigating the FHWA's preferred alternative in the Final Environmental Impact Assessment. Working with the transportation engineering firm Smart Mobility, Inc., the Capitol Hill Restoration Society discovered that, while the DC Department of Transportation states that there will not be an increase in capacity, the “preferred alternative … will result in a 50% increase of freeway capacity into central DC, even though this is contrary to the DC Comprehensive Plan.” This project has renewed discussions about improving surface-street and pedestrian connections in the near southeastern section of the district by removing the Southeast Freeway -- what the DC Office of Planning refers to as a “formidable psychological barrier.”

Actually the highway was not prevented from extending to the west, as that was built as the SW Freeway. Rather it was prevented from extending to the east and the north by canceling the East Leg, and afterwards via canceling the Barney Circle connector.

Washington Gateway Chock

New Demolition Special to Complicate I-395 Tunnel Extension; builds upon remaining sliver of land adjacent to New York Avenue, forcing tunnel directly beneath existing Avenue as it rises to overpass railroad

Number "17"

Project is in immediate need of cancellation, for blocking the remaining sliver of land allowing construction of the I-395 tunnel extension alongside New York Avenue - particularly along the highly useful O Street axis.

Project chocks the I-395 extension whether to the (eastern) New York Avenue corridor or the (northern) B&O corridor.

Project also conflicts with lowering the B&O railroad and the idea of covering said railroad as done via the Grand Arc.

Project testifies to the sheer incompetence of D.C. planning and the degree the authorities are beholden to medievalists that would chock publicly valuable evacuation route, disregarding civil defense (while nonetheless embracing 1984-esque domestic surveillance).

Is scheduled to start construction autumn 2008.

I-395 Tunnel Extension Superior Option
MRP Reality
MRP Reality- Washington 'Gateway' Project

Evacuation Route To Be Demolished This Summer!!

U.S. DOT approves demolition of RFK Stadium Access Ramps
& Highway

Mary Peters, U.S. DOT
http://www.dot.gov/bios/peters.htm

From Jacqueline Dupree:

http://www.jdland.com/dc/index.cfm?id=2641

The FAQ mentions that the existing flyover ramps to and from RFK (the ones that head east over M Street) are supposed to be demolished "this summer", but I've been unable to get any details from DDOT as to whether that's still happening. I'm also not sure whether that's part of the bigger plan (not technically part of the bridge replacement project) to completely do away with the current below-grade freeway to Pennsylvania Avenue and replace it with "Southeast Freeway Boulevard", running at-grade from 11th Street eastward. (Read the EIS for more on that.)

How much is it going to cost? The ROD says that a cost review meeting in December "indicated that the estimate was consistent with an 80th percentile probability that the year-of-expenditure project cost would not exceed 465 million dollars." Those of you well versed in bureaucracy-speak can translate that as necessary.

http://www.11thstreetbridgeseis.com/reports.asp?DocGroupID=10033
http://www.11thstreetbridgeseis.com/

Media Talking Head Bob Novak Hits Pedestrian With His Black Corvette

Apparantly Bob Novak is a man who drives to make time, to say the least.

Particularly when driving within Washington, D.C.

In a Black Corvette.

So, can anyone point to what this man has ever said publically on any of his talk shows about the government's 'inability' to construct a continuous freeway system?

With all of the talk about the changed reality after 911, what has Novak or any of the other Washington, D.C. media talking heads said about evacuation routes?

Surely he's aware of how I-395 just dumps out onto New York Avenue, etc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/23/robert-novak-taken-into-p_n_114510.html

Takoma D.C. Tranport Chock Developer Chocked SW Freeway

An Epidemic of Corridor Chocks
right within the Nation's Capital City
Washington, D.C.


The developer that is pushing the development project at the Takoma WMATA Station is the same developer that irresponsibly chocked the SW Freeway corridor with the row of 28 townhouses at the northern edge of the Capital Square townhouse project, Eakin Youngentob.

As I wrote in my original "Highways And Communities" web site:

Eakin-Youngentob "Capital Square" townhouses, on land plot between 6th, 7th, G Street SW and the SW Freeway, with row of 28 townhouses a mere 16 1/2 feet from SW Freeway retaining wall, one block south of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This 16 1/5 foot setback is significently less then that of all of the other buildings along the southern side of the SW Freeway, which have 70-90 fete of setback.

This makes it more difficult and expensive to construct new retaining wall for tunnel roof (as the existing walls would not be likely to be so designed), hence keeping the existing SW Freeway in a configuration that divides DC SW - hence contrary to long term NCPC planning for the removal of the mass of elevated highways and railways that now cross over South Capital Street.

This also makes it more difficult and expensive to improve safety and decrease conjestion and pollution with mitigating the SW Freeway bottleneck southwards and westerly of the Center Leg -- hence more likely remaining a traffic bottleneck with ripple effects well into Virginia.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060207152135/www.highwaysandcommunities.com/Planning_Errors_D.C._Real_Estate_Development_built_ALERT.htm

WMATA's awarding this developer underscores a blatant disregard for long term transportation corridor planning.

If numbers of dwelling were the overriding favor why was the Capital Square project built as townhouses rather than something more substantial with greater numbers of such along with the setback from the SW Freeway.