Capitol Hill Restoration Society

The DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the new Eleventh Street bridges. Adoption of this report will allow work to begin on the rebuild and redesign of the bridges. Comments must be received by November 20. Anyone who wishes to look at the FEIS can do so at: www.11thstreetbridgeseis.com/ whatsnew.asp. Comments can be emailed to EleventhSt@ch2m.com.

CHRS is currently reviewing this voluminous document, and will have specific comments on the FEIS before the deadline. We have been involved in community meetings dealing with Anacostia River Crossings (bridges at various locations) since 2003. CHRS has kept members apprised of DDOT plans and reported our involvement and our assessment of these plans in the newsletter and in other local newspapers. We will reserve our comments on this FEIS pending completion of our review, but will briefly describe the bridges project that the FEIS purports to have studied.

The FEIS presents several alternatives. Each alternative would replace the eight lane bridge span and provide freeway connections on both sides of the river. Each alternative would also build a four lane “local” bridge between Capitol Hill and Anacostia. The increased bridge capacity because of the added local lanes is more likely to facilitate commuter traffic through our neighborhoods rather than reduce traffic and congestion, which is a stated objective of the Eleventh Street Bridges project.

There has been some incorrect information given out at to whether the proposed bridges will have increased lanes. A piece in the Washington Post District Weekly incorrectly stated that “the two bridges still would have 12 lanes total.” We contacted the writer to point out that there are currently only eight traffic lanes on the bridge. She checked it out and explained that she had misunderstood the FEIS lane description and will post a correction.

Community groups have suggested that one of the alternatives which should have been analyzed was the original proposal that DDOT brought before the community in 2003: a simple freeway connection via the Eleventh Street Bridge to I-295 northbound (Kenilworth Avenue), retaining the eight lanes of traffic, but allowing flows with freeway connections both northbound and southbound. CHRS and other community groups supported this concept four years ago, when DDOT presented this option as a potential way to reduce traffic on the Sousa Bridge and on Pennsylvania Avenue. Development along M Street, SE, is a reality which has created new traffic flows. It makes sense to provide a traffic connection north on I-295 at M Street rather than forcing traffic across the already heavily congested Sousa Bridge to make the I-295 connection. DDOT presented this sensible, reasonable alternative and community groups agreed.

The Restoration Society believes that if DDOT thinks that this simple, northbound connection (which would cost an estimated $500 million—far less than the alternatives studied) is inferior to the alternatives presented in the FEIS, it should have presented an analysis in the FEIS demonstrating this inferiority. DDOT should have studied the differences in traffic densities and flows in this simple connection alternative to convince the community that this DDOT proposal which they previously embraced was insufficient to improve traffic flow and decrease congestion and commuter traffic through residential neighborhoods. This option was not studied. Therefore, we will review and assess the FEIS as it stands.

We will also continue to press DDOT to conduct a new, comprehensive mobility study that integrates urban land use and multi-modal transportation system planning. Members who wish to file comments should do so by November 20 at the email address given above.