Southeast Blvd. Designs Look Like the Freeway It’s Replacing

Last night, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) presented several concepts for replacing the end of the Southeast Freeway with a boulevard. While it’s supposed to reconnect Hill East to the Anacostia River, all of the designs presented prioritize through traffic instead.

The Southeast Freeway has been a barrier between the neighborhood and the river, but the new 11th Street bridges mean that the spur between 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE is no longer needed. DDOT would like to replace it with a surface street, called “Southeast Boulevard,” connecting the freeway at 11th Street to Barney Circle.

A standing-room only crowd packed the Payne Elementary School auditorium for DDOT’s public meeting on the Barney Circle-Southeast Boulevard Transportation Planning Study. At the meeting, required as part of an environmental assessment of the project under the National Environmental Protection Act, transportation planners shared design concepts for the project and gathered community feedback.

Map on Concept 2. Images from DDOT.

Map on Concept 2. Images from DDOT.

Alternatives for Southeast Boulevard and Barney Circle vary slightly

DDOT planners presented six different options they’re studying for the new street, including a “No Build” option (Concept 1) required as part of the NEPA process that would keep everything as it is today.

Concept 2 puts Southeast Boulevard on an elevated structure midway between L Street SE and the existing CSX railroad tracks. The boulevard would be on the same level as L Street, with green space acting as a buffer. Pedestrians and cyclists could access the waterfront by crossing the boulevard at 14th Street SE. DDOT would also build a “multi-modal” parking facility underneath the raised boulevard, with ramps off of the boulevard providing bus and car access to the parking facility.

Concept 2

Concept 2

In Concept 3A, Southeast Boulevard would be at grade, below the level of L Street, with surface parking and green space next to it. There would be a foot and bike bridge over the boulevard and another surface lot to provide access to the waterfront.

Concept 3A

Concept 3A

Concept 3B is similar to 3A, except the boulevard is on the same level as L Street. In this case, pedestrians and cyclists would have to cross directly over the 4-lane boulevard and surface parking lot to access the waterfront.

Concept 3B

Concept 3B

Concept 4A places the Southeast Boulevard closer to the railroad tracks and away from L Street, with a parking lot in between. The boulevard and parking would be at grade below the level of L Street. Pedestrians and cyclists would access the waterfront via a pedestrian bridge over the parking lots and boulevard.

Concept 4A

Concept 4A

Concept 4B is the same, except the boulevard is at the same level as L Street, and pedestrians and cyclists would cross the parking lots and boulevard at 14th Street.

Concept 4B

Concept 4B

Planners also presented two options on the Barney Circle project, both of which would place traffic signals at the circle.

Option 1 would connect 17th Street, Kentucky Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue and Southeast Boulevard directly to the circle. Kentucky Avenue would stay a two-way street south of Freedom Way and one-way north of it. K Street would not be connected to the circle, but you could still reach it via Pennsylvania Avenue.

In Option 2, 17th, Pennsylvania and Southeast Boulevard would connect to Barney Circle, while Kentucky Avenue would become a one-way southbound street from H Street to the circle. H Street would become a two-way street, with all-way stop signs installed at 17th & H and 16th, Kentucky and H. K Street would remain one-way, but would connect directly to the circle.

Barney Circle Option 1

Barney Circle Option 1

These options prioritize through traffic over local connections

All of DDOT’s concepts for Southeast Boulevard have three things in common: they all include a four-lane boulevard, have no connections to local streets, and include some parking element. The agency’s traffic analysis determined that the new street was necessary, connections to local strets would increase cut-through traffic and that there’s a significant need for parking.

The result is concepts that simply recreate what DDOT and the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative are trying to eliminate: a freeway that separates the neighborhood from the waterfront. The extra lanes, lack of signals and additional parking will just attract more drivers to the neighborhood during rush hour.

The designs are especially harmful to 17th Street, where Hill East residents have fought for years to reduce traffic volume and speed. DDOT proposes making 17th Street the only access point to Southeast Boulevard via Barney Circle, making it an alternative for drivers trying to avoid 295 and the 11th Street bridge.

Replace the freeway with a new street grid

If a new street is necessary, a better option is to extend the neighborhood grid by connecting the local streets, 13th, 14th, and 15th, to a two-lane boulevard with stoplights at each intersection. This would make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to cross at multiple locations and make the boulevard a local street, rather than a freeway.

A two-lane road with multiple signals would attract less traffic, easing but not eliminating some of the pressure on 17th Street SE. Green space could provide a buffer between L Street and the two-lane boulevard. And forget the unneeded parking lots.

On Barney Circle, Option 1 appears to be preferable to Option 2, assuming that DDOT can implement traffic calming measures on Kentucky Ave SE. Option 2 exacerbates current traffic volume problems by attracting more vehicles to 16th, 17th and H streets. Without changes to the Southeast Boulevard portion of the project, both Barney Circle options make the neighborhood worse off.

If the goal of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative is really “to reduce barriers between neighborhoods and the waterfront parks” and “provide continuous pedestrian and bicycle access along the entire waterfront,” than we need an option that replaces the Southeast Freeway with a new street grid that prioritizes local connections.

What do you think about the proposals? You can send your comments directly to DDOT at barneycircle@prrbiz.com.

6 Responses to Southeast Blvd. Designs Look Like the Freeway It’s Replacing

  1. Eric says:

    I’m against option 2 for Barney Circle, specifically turning H Street into a two-way street. Doing so would simply encourage drivers to use H Street (and Kentucky Ave or 16th St) as a cut through. Furthermore the only way to safely allow two way traffic would be to eliminate parking on one side.

    I’m not against a boulevard or the nee circle, but any construction needs to be done with a focus on keeping cars on the roads designed for heavy traffic and off our quiet neighborhood roads. As such, I think traffic calming on Kentucky is a must have (either in the form or raised crosswalks, protruding curbing, angled parking, or some other means) as well as something to slow drivers down on 17th.

    Bus parking along the proposed boulevard is universally despised by every neighbor I heard from in the area. Eliminating it as an option is necessary to garner any community support.

  2. dcgent says:

    Has Wells stated his position on bus parking in this location–would hope he would block it or call a hearing about its need. Send them to park at National Harbor!

  3. Eric H says:

    I’ll be sending along comments directly to DDOT as well, but there are a lot of problematic issues with the proposals. Generally I think the major problem is that their goals don’t make any sense, and their proposals don’t seem to line up with the goals.

    From the document, the purposes is apparently:
    -reconfigure Barney circle to accommodate neighborhood turning movements (what are those?)
    – redesign SE Freeway into a “great urban boulevard”
    – Reconnect the city to the boulevard and mitigate the barrier between the neighborhoods and the parks
    – provide opportunities for enhanced public transit

    Except their proposals don’t seem to do ANY of those things.
    – I don’t know what a “turning movement” is, but unless they mean “connect all of the streets off of Barney Circle to Barney Circle and let traffic go where it may, they don’t seem to be doing that
    – a freeway that is not connected to any of the surrounding streets does not say “great urban boulevard” to me. it says freeway; intended to shuttle traffic at high speeds through the area.
    – having no connections (other than a single pedestrian bridge in one proposal) does nothing to “reconnect the city to the boulevard”
    – “opportunities for enhanced public transit” wait; so providing parking for tour buses on the mall somehow enhances public transit?

    As for the Barney Circle options again there doesn’t seem to be a strong connection with goals here. Personally, living on Kentucky as I do, I would prefer Option 1 because it will prevent traffic from the circle coming northbound on Kentucky, but quite frankly NEITHER option seems to be a good one. Neither option addresses the existing concern of the folks living on 17th street about the state of traffic there, and in all likelihood it will exacerbate the problem by encouraging more traffic. So what is their goal with Barney Circle? Where do they want traffic to go? Is it supposed to go down 17th? only down Pennsylvania? It’s hard to evaluate the designs and think of other proposals when we have no idea what their goals are and furthermore we have no idea what sort of traffic impact there will be on the Barney Circle neighbors (on 17th, H, and Kentucky) without some sort of analysis.

    All in all it seems like a significant lack of forethought or planning. I am disappointed.

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