11th Street Bridge Project Contractor Selected

Fenty Administration Moves Forward with Work on 9th and 11th Streets Bridge Projects

Contractor Selected on 11th Street Bridges

Today, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Gabe Klein announced the significant work that is set to begin on the 9th Street Bridge (NE) and the 11th Street Bridges (SE) projects.

“These projects are a huge undertaking that will provide safer and more efficient roads for local and commuter traffic,” said Mayor Fenty. “The results will spur economic development opportunities in Brentwood and along the Anacostia River, supporting and enhancing the vision of our neighborhoods being world class destinations.”

“These new bridges are replacing out-dated, deficient infrastructure in high traffic areas that hundreds of thousands of people rely on every day,” said DDOT Director Klein. “Ultimately these new bridges will increase the traffic safety and relieve congestion.”

11th Street Bridge SE Project:

Mayor Fenty announced the contractor selected for the work on the 11th Street Bridges project is Skanska/Facchina. Skanska/Facchina have offices in the District and Maryland and are well-respected leaders in the construction industry.

The $300 million initiative is the largest construction job in DDOT history. The project will allow better regional connections and provide drivers with easy accessibility to neighborhoods like Historic Anacostia, Capitol Hill, Navy Yard as well as Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Anacostia Park. The freeway bridges will connect the Anacostia Freeway and the Southeast Freeway, providing the missing movement from the north to the east and the east to the north.

Currently, southbound motorists on the Anacostia Freeway cannot access the bridges; and motorists on the bridges are currently restricted from going north onto the Freeway. Two separate bridges for arterial local traffic and freeway traffic will reduce congestion and improve the mobility of traffic.

The 11th Street Bridge project will add a third bridge dedicated to local traffic, which will feature bicycle and pedestrian accommodations along with streetcar tracks for improved transit accommodations.

The new bridges will replace deficient infrastructure and will increase the traffic safety providing alternative evacuation routes in and out of the nation’s capital.

The District is using an innovative procurement approach called Design-Build-to-Budget. This type of design and construction is performed by a construction contractor and designer (design-build team). The design-build represents 90 percent of the original scope as it was laid out in the preferred alternative which was estimated to cost up to $459 million.

Click HERE for additional information on the 11th Street Bridges Project.

The above information has been extracted from DDOT's Traffic Advisory email alert.

C Street, NE - MPD Speed Camera Data

One of a variety of MPD's moblie speed camera units deployed @ C & 18th Streets, NE


One of a number of advisory combination Speed-limit and Photo-enforced signs along the west-bound lane of C Street, NE


Speed-camera Unit Location (Click on image to view larger version)

The below table was created based on data FOIA'd from MPD's Traffic Safety and Specialized Enforcement Branch (TS&SEB). Since the summer of 2007, we have successfully collaborated with Sergeant Mark Robinson of the TS&SEB, and his team, to deploy the mobile speed camera on C Street, NE (at the intersection of 18th Street). Since it's inception, first deployed in December 2007, more than 9,200 west-bound motorists have been cited for violating the enforceable 25MPH speed limit. Note: DDOT has posted a a 15MPH school-zone speed-limit between 8A-5P, but MPD enforces the 25MPH speed-limit.


(Click on table to view larger version)

Based on the above data (and subsequent months to soon follow), we have urged MPD to expand deployment to include the east-bound vehicular lanes. Our long-term goal is to have a fixed, permanent (at least until DDOT can redesign and reconstruct the street) speed-camera placed in the C Street median to continuously enforce the 25MPH speed limit in both the east and west-bound traffic lanes.

MPD has been very responsive and supportive of our efforts to reduce chronic excessive speeding (>30 mph) along this residential street, which includes a school-zone (Eliot-Hines JHS). We would like to thank Sergeant Mark Robinson, and TS&SEB's speed-camera team, for their commitment and dedication. Their high quality of service is testimony to MPD's dedication to student, pedestrian and cyclist safety along DC neighborhood streets.

Nationals Buses will be Back!

Nationals Shuttle Bus Turning From C Street, NE on to 17th Street

The free Nationals shuttle bus from RFK stadium to Nationals park will return for the 2009 season. Of course, the shuttle route won't impact the Greater Capitol Hill neighborhood because the Nationals are only to use the RFK access road to the Southeast/Southwest Freeway. Well sort of, during conflict games days in the 2008 season, when DC United is playing at RFK stadium on the same day as the Nationals, the Nationals shuttle buses unilaterally broke their commitment not to use residential streets and proceed down C St., 17th St., Potomac Ave and 11th St. The Nationals' reasoning was dangerous turning maneuvers, near Barny Circle, when DC United fan are also using the RFK access road. Let's hope the shuttle buses won't continue to use the neighborhood "alternative route" this year.

HERE is a brief WTOP article and HERE is brief DCist post on the matter.

HERE and HERE are two post from last year on the subject. There is dialog between residents, DDOT and Nationals officials debating why shuttle buses (full-size charter buses) should and will use Capitol Hill residential streets.

If you have any questions or concerns about the issue, contact Ward 6 CM Tommy Wells(twells@dccouncil.us) or DDOT's Damon Harvey (damon.harvey@dc.gov).