Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Benning Road Transportation Improvements Environmental Assessment

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration are preparing an Environmental Assessment for the proposed Benning Road and Bridge Multimodal Transportation Improvements.

Benning Road Study Area - Image courtesy of Google Maps

The meeting will be held Tuesday April 22, 2014 at the Department of Employment Services Building, 4058 Minnesota Avenue, NE from 6:30 pm. to 8 pm.

The study area is along the Benning Road NE corridor, from Oklahoma Avenue to the Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road Metrorail Stations. This public meeting will serve to inform attendees about the project’s scope and discuss transportation issues. The approximately 1.7 mile corridor  is the planned route for the H Street / Benning Road streetcar extension into Ward 7, which currently ends near Spingran High School.

The BAC Facilities (BAC - FAC) committee has specifically called for action on this section Benning Road as the bridge over route 295, the Anacostia freeway, and the Alexandria Extension of the CSX railroad, which are are barriers for bicycles and pedestrians. Specifically, Benning Road at this point has entrance and exit lanes where cars move at highway speeds, making it difficult for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross or use the travel lanes for bicycling.  Also, the sidewalks on the bridge are particularly narrow.

As part of its rolling meeting series regarding the Florida Avenue Multimodal Transportation study, BAC - FAC will also ride from the NoMa-Galludet Station to the foot of the Benning Road bridge to investigate the bicycling impediments and planned improvements along this corridor. The ride will be Saturday, April 19, 2014. BAC encourages you to attend our rolling meeting, leave comments below or send us a tweet @DCBAC.