Douglas A. Willinger
2004-10-31 21:28:41 UTC
Baseball Stadium Site Boondoggle
Testimony to DC City Council
October 28, 2004
Douglas A. Willinger
Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
http://www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com
The DC City Council must reject the current stadium
proposal due to the stadium's specific location
between N and P Streets SE, 1st Street SE and South
Capital Street.
This location is unsatisfactory for numerous reasons
It locks in existing 130 foot right of way at South
Capital Street, which,
Blocks the South Capital Greenway/Mall proposed by
NCPC in 1997 to popular acclaim running from towards
the Capitol Building southward towards the Anacostia
River
Blocks even the two proposals for a narrower Greenway
that appear in the 2003 South Capital Gateway Study,
either for a symmetrical 100 foot median greenway
within a 220 foot row, or an asymmetrical 140 foot
linear park all to the east of South Capital- all
allegedly to save the houses along Carrollsburg Place
SW and the lower west side of South Capital Street
alongside the existing bridge approach.
Complicates replacement Bridge for South Capital
Street by denying space to east to construct approach
to new bridge, potentially forcing it on new alignment
to the west of South Capital Street through the
above-mentioned houses along the west side of the
existing South Capital Street Bridge approach.
Complicates proposed tunnel with stadium placed
directly atop, or by forcing tunnel alignment to share
right of way with surface South Capital Street
Placing stadium directly atop tunnel to east of South
Capital Street will require coordinating designs of
tunnel and stadium foundations. But with the tunnel
on a 15 year time frame and the stadium on a 3 year,
what guarantee that the stadium foundations will
accommodate tunnel at later date? Or will this issue
be deferred, along with cost increases to general
public of tens of millions of $ due to foundation
deficiencies and soil conditions? The Williams
administration and stadium backers have an abysmal
record in approving boondoggle real estate projects
that create conflicts and significant cost increases
to future transportation infrastructure projects, such
as the row of "Capital Square" townhouses alongside
the SW Freeway within site of USDOT and HUD, a several
million $ land sale resulting in perhaps a $50 million
increase in the cost of covering the SW Freeway to
make it a tunnel and reconnect SW, and the "Golden
Rule" apartment building at the northwest corner of K
Street and New Jersey Avenue blocking the unused I-395
tunnel on ramp, and creating a migratory pattern of
elderly pedestrians carrying groceries from the
"Golden Rule" market 1 1/2 blocks to the east, across
a New Jersey Avenue with greater amounts of traffic
resulting from the surface street to freeway on ramp
being blocked, and thus not counter the traffic from
freeway to surface street off ramp to south. With
such a track record, how can we accept the stadium
proposal without any accounting of the extra expenses
to constructing a replacement South Capital Bridge and
the new parallel tunnel connecting I-295 with I-395?
What about the security risk of placing stadium with
30,000+ spectators and a logical terrorist (assuming
that terrorists look to maximize the loss of life)
target, *directly atop* highway tunnel route? (Note
that the I-395 Center Leg/3rd Street Tunnel passes
some 3 blocks to the west of the U.S. Capitol
Building, rather then directly beneath.)
Or, what about the extra expense of constructing the
tunnel directly beneath South Capital Street AFTER it
is lined with buildings, hence depriving it the space
to stage construction less expensively and for
providing adjacent construction equipment storage?
Having to construct something on an existing road that
must have traffic maintained throughout construction
is always more expensive then having a separate right
of way where construction occurs unimpeded by linear
traffic. But where is any consideration of this by
backers of this ill conceived stadium site location?
Complicates and congests traffic flow for lacking
roadway interchange capacity, introducing yet another
security risk of further educing traffic flow blocking
key city exit
RFK an infinitely better site, let's redevelop area to
create mixed use with improved economic
competitiveness with tunneled extension from SE
Freeway Barney Circle compatible with Massachusetts
Avenue SE Bridge to better connect with east of
Anacostia.
If they are so intent on new stadium south of capital,
why the insistence on 3 year time table?
If they are to build a stadium in that general area,
shift it a few hundred feet east and north to provide
more space for bridge and tunnel construction, to
provide the space for making the bridge and tunnel
construction less complicated and less expensive, to
provide space for the greenway, and provide the space
to stage traffic routes from bridge to stadium without
causing a traffic clot.
Or perhaps shift it a few hundred feet west and south,
placing it directly upon the South Capital axis as
part of a new bridge project featuring a new traffic
circle combining that seen on the axis west and east
of the Capitol with the Lincoln Memorial and RFK,
providing that we can place this monumentally
important long term planning decision over some one's
idea that the thing must be built in 3 years.
Regardless of one's opinion about its economic
feasibility and its funding, this particularly stadium
site plan must be rejected, with a more feasible
solution being renovating RFK Stadium, building some
mixed use development, particularly atop areas of its
parking lots decked over, made more economically
competitive with a tunneled extension from the
Pennsylvania Avenue SE/Barney Circle underpass to East
Capital Street.
Douglas A. Willinger
Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
http://www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com
Testimony to DC City Council
October 28, 2004
Douglas A. Willinger
Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
http://www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com
The DC City Council must reject the current stadium
proposal due to the stadium's specific location
between N and P Streets SE, 1st Street SE and South
Capital Street.
This location is unsatisfactory for numerous reasons
It locks in existing 130 foot right of way at South
Capital Street, which,
Blocks the South Capital Greenway/Mall proposed by
NCPC in 1997 to popular acclaim running from towards
the Capitol Building southward towards the Anacostia
River
Blocks even the two proposals for a narrower Greenway
that appear in the 2003 South Capital Gateway Study,
either for a symmetrical 100 foot median greenway
within a 220 foot row, or an asymmetrical 140 foot
linear park all to the east of South Capital- all
allegedly to save the houses along Carrollsburg Place
SW and the lower west side of South Capital Street
alongside the existing bridge approach.
Complicates replacement Bridge for South Capital
Street by denying space to east to construct approach
to new bridge, potentially forcing it on new alignment
to the west of South Capital Street through the
above-mentioned houses along the west side of the
existing South Capital Street Bridge approach.
Complicates proposed tunnel with stadium placed
directly atop, or by forcing tunnel alignment to share
right of way with surface South Capital Street
Placing stadium directly atop tunnel to east of South
Capital Street will require coordinating designs of
tunnel and stadium foundations. But with the tunnel
on a 15 year time frame and the stadium on a 3 year,
what guarantee that the stadium foundations will
accommodate tunnel at later date? Or will this issue
be deferred, along with cost increases to general
public of tens of millions of $ due to foundation
deficiencies and soil conditions? The Williams
administration and stadium backers have an abysmal
record in approving boondoggle real estate projects
that create conflicts and significant cost increases
to future transportation infrastructure projects, such
as the row of "Capital Square" townhouses alongside
the SW Freeway within site of USDOT and HUD, a several
million $ land sale resulting in perhaps a $50 million
increase in the cost of covering the SW Freeway to
make it a tunnel and reconnect SW, and the "Golden
Rule" apartment building at the northwest corner of K
Street and New Jersey Avenue blocking the unused I-395
tunnel on ramp, and creating a migratory pattern of
elderly pedestrians carrying groceries from the
"Golden Rule" market 1 1/2 blocks to the east, across
a New Jersey Avenue with greater amounts of traffic
resulting from the surface street to freeway on ramp
being blocked, and thus not counter the traffic from
freeway to surface street off ramp to south. With
such a track record, how can we accept the stadium
proposal without any accounting of the extra expenses
to constructing a replacement South Capital Bridge and
the new parallel tunnel connecting I-295 with I-395?
What about the security risk of placing stadium with
30,000+ spectators and a logical terrorist (assuming
that terrorists look to maximize the loss of life)
target, *directly atop* highway tunnel route? (Note
that the I-395 Center Leg/3rd Street Tunnel passes
some 3 blocks to the west of the U.S. Capitol
Building, rather then directly beneath.)
Or, what about the extra expense of constructing the
tunnel directly beneath South Capital Street AFTER it
is lined with buildings, hence depriving it the space
to stage construction less expensively and for
providing adjacent construction equipment storage?
Having to construct something on an existing road that
must have traffic maintained throughout construction
is always more expensive then having a separate right
of way where construction occurs unimpeded by linear
traffic. But where is any consideration of this by
backers of this ill conceived stadium site location?
Complicates and congests traffic flow for lacking
roadway interchange capacity, introducing yet another
security risk of further educing traffic flow blocking
key city exit
RFK an infinitely better site, let's redevelop area to
create mixed use with improved economic
competitiveness with tunneled extension from SE
Freeway Barney Circle compatible with Massachusetts
Avenue SE Bridge to better connect with east of
Anacostia.
If they are so intent on new stadium south of capital,
why the insistence on 3 year time table?
If they are to build a stadium in that general area,
shift it a few hundred feet east and north to provide
more space for bridge and tunnel construction, to
provide the space for making the bridge and tunnel
construction less complicated and less expensive, to
provide space for the greenway, and provide the space
to stage traffic routes from bridge to stadium without
causing a traffic clot.
Or perhaps shift it a few hundred feet west and south,
placing it directly upon the South Capital axis as
part of a new bridge project featuring a new traffic
circle combining that seen on the axis west and east
of the Capitol with the Lincoln Memorial and RFK,
providing that we can place this monumentally
important long term planning decision over some one's
idea that the thing must be built in 3 years.
Regardless of one's opinion about its economic
feasibility and its funding, this particularly stadium
site plan must be rejected, with a more feasible
solution being renovating RFK Stadium, building some
mixed use development, particularly atop areas of its
parking lots decked over, made more economically
competitive with a tunneled extension from the
Pennsylvania Avenue SE/Barney Circle underpass to East
Capital Street.
Douglas A. Willinger
Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
http://www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com