11th Street Bridges Project

Project Abstract

The incomplete freeway system in Southeast Washington forces drivers to exit the freeway onto neighborhood streets to reach their destinations. Some of the primary routes are through environmental justice neighborhoods. Freeway and local street traffic are forced to mix on the existing bridges, including dangerous weaving maneuvers. The existing bridges do not provide safe facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the river.

Courtesy of DDOT

-- Excerpt from 11th Street Bridges Project Submission Form --

Overview

The 11th Street Bridges are a pair of one-way freeway bridges that cross the Anacostia River in southeastern Washington DC. The bridges link the Anacostia Freeway (I-295 and DC-295) and the Southeast/ Southwest Freeway (I-695). However, the full connections envisioned in the original project plan remain incomplete, forcing drivers off of the freeway and onto neighborhood streets to get to their destinations. CH2M HILL led an extensive public and agency involvement program that brought together government officials, citizens groups, and agency officials to address key issues and to reach consensus on design alternatives. The selected alternative will decrease traffic through neighborhoods, provide missing pedestrian and bicycle connections, and accommodate future streetcar tracks across the Anacostia River. Because of redevelopment in the area, it was imperative to obtain a ROD swiftly so that the design could proceed. CH2M HILL helped DDOT deliver an expedited EIS, and on July 2, 2008, DDOT received a ROD from FHWA. This clears the way for design and construction of the 11th Street Bridges to begin.

CSS Qualities: Process

Project information was disseminated via public hearings, newsletters, briefings to public and agency officials, presentations to neighborhoods and civic associations, email list serves, and a project website.

CSS Qualities: Outcome

CH2M HILL led the identification of several environmental and social issues addressed in the EIS. We studied a comprehensive range of environmental issues including land use, social, economic, environmental justice, air quality, noise, water quality and wetlands (including Section 404 and 401 compliance), fish and wildlife, floodplains, threatened and endangered species, historical, architectural, and archaeological resources, park and recreation areas, hazardous waste, and visual features. We also provided detailed analysis for key environmental issues including noise modeling and mitigation, air quality conformity and hot spot analysis, Section 4(f) recreation uses with net benefit programmatic agreement mitigation, Section 6(f) parklands replacement, cultural resource memorandum of agreement, Section 7 endangered species coordination, environmental justice coordination, and neighborhood traffic concerns.

The project provides additional local river crossings, provides space for street cars, connects the trail on the local bridge to the Riverwalk trail on both sides of the river, improves the pedestrian connections across the highway, and uses sustainable low-impact design techniques. It will meet the following goals to protect and enhance the environment:

Discourage cut-through traffic on local streets
Improve vehicular safety by separating local and freeway traffic
Improve safety of pedestrian, and bicycle traffic
Replace deficient infrastructure and roadway design
Provide an alternative evacuation route and routes for security movements in and out of the nation’s capitol
Provide easier access to the waterfront and parks