The Long Bridge Project Community Advisory Group Washington DC CAG Meeting #2   6/5/2025

Good afternoon.

Thank you so much for joining us for the Long Bridge Project's second community advisory group meeting.

We're going to give it about one minute or so to let a few folks join us and get started.

So again, thank you so much for joining us for this afternoon's second community advisory group meeting for the Long Bridge project with the focus of Washington, DC.

My name is Patrice Brooks and my team and I are supporting the project with outreach and engagement.

And I just wanted to go over some key things just for the meeting before we get started.

So the meeting is going to start with a presentation and during the presentation,

Everyone's microphone will be muted just to avoid any background noise or any other background noise that may impact them at the meeting.

Additionally, we do have the question and answer function where you can answer your questions during the meeting if you have them, and we will address them at the end of the meeting.

Before I hand it over to Meredith, I do want to note that this meeting is being recorded just so we can accurately capture your questions, comments, and concerns.

and we will have the presentation posted on the website at the conclusion of the meeting.

Thank you, Patrice.

It's a pleasure to have you all here.

I also welcome you to the second meeting of the Community Advisory Group for the Long Bridge Project with a focus on the DC side.

We'll be meeting with this group on a quarterly basis to provide you with updates on the project to discuss ways that we can reach out to the communities who are impacted by our work and to hear questions and concerns from you.

The participants on this call represent a wide group of community members from residential leadership, such as the ANC to business leaders, elected officials, district and federal agencies, advocacy groups and others.

And today we'll provide you with an abbreviated overview of the Long Bridge project since most of you heard about that at our first meeting and spend most of our time today focused on the transportation impacts on Main Avenue and Maiden Lane during construction.

We'll provide you with a summary of recent outreach efforts, and then we'd like to open it to a forum in which we can hear from you, hear any questions, concerns, and ideas you have for continued outreach.

So let's move into introductions.

As Patrice said, I'm Meredith Judy.

I'm the Community Affairs Manager with Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

Good afternoon.

I'm Naomi Klein.

Hi, I'm Catherine Henley.

We also have Tom and Sarah on the call.

Hi everyone, this is Sarah Gary, SFJV.

That doesn't look like you.

That's fine.

We've got we've got people to answer questions and we have Ian Langan who's the project manager for

the Long Bridge Project at VPRA as well.

Great, thank you.

This is just an agenda for the topic that we are going to cover today.

Introductions, we've already done.

I'm going to give the Long Bridge Project overview.

For those of you who were on our first meeting, that's what we spent most of that meeting doing.

So,

I'm going to keep it brief.

But for those of you who are joining us for the first time today, welcome.

We want to make sure that you have a full understanding of the scope of the project.

And then I'll be turning it over to Katherine, who you just heard from, who will talk to you about construction of timeline impacts to traffic.

And then we will close out the meeting.

Meredith will talk about outreach and communication.

And then we will take questions and talk about next steps.

Next slide, please.

So as a quick project overview, the Long Bridge project is building a two-track rail bridge across the Potomac River.

There is an existing rail bridge, you can see it labeled in blue, that is owned by CSX, private freight company.

And that bridge is currently at 98% capacity.

The current bridge is shared by

CSX for freight rail, Amtrak for intercity passenger rail, and VRE for commuter rail.

So all three modes of train travel share this two-track bridge.

It is a bottleneck, not just between DC and Virginia, but on the entire East Coast.

The orange juice that comes from Florida has to go across this two-track bridge.

So what we, what VPRA is doing is we are building a new two-track bridge.

The existing bridge will be left in place and will continue to be owned by CSX

What that will do is expand capacities that we can move passenger rail to the new two tracks and Frankrail will continue to operate on the existing two tracks.

All four tracks are interoperable, so should there be any issue with any of the structures, then Trades would be able to use either of these bridges.

In addition to the new two-track rail bridge, the project is also building a dedicated bike pedestrian bridge

as mitigation for impacts to parkland.

And so the new two-track rail bridge and the new bike pedestrian bridge will be located in between the Wamata Yellow Line Bridge and the existing Long Bridge.

So this project starts in Arlington and the project ends in just south of L'Enfant Station to expand the rail corridor to four tracks

South of the Long Bridge project, we have another project, Alexandria Fourth Track, which will expand from three to four tracks.

And north of the project, we have the L'Enfant Station and Fourth Track project, which will also expand the corridor to four tracks all the way up to Union Station.

So we have a unified four-track corridor from Alexandria all the way up to Union Station.

And then the four tracks continue up the northeast corridor.

Next slide, please.

So I talked about the Long Bridge across the Potomac River, but this project is actually more than that.

It's actually five rail bridges and two bike or pedestrian bridges.

So just to go over where those bridges are, we've got a bridge over George Washington Memorial Parkway, over the Potomac River, over the I-395 Highway, over Ohio Drive, the Washington Channel, Main Avenue, and then ending just south of

Longmont Station.

So because of the size and scale of this project, it is broken up into two packages for the purpose of construction.

There is a south package and that will build everything that is in Virginia and the bridge across the Potomac River.

The south package ends right as you enter East Potomac Park, closest to the water.

and the south package will also build the bike pedestrian bridge.

That package is a design build contract.

The design builder started at the beginning of this year and construction is estimated to start in the middle of next year.

The north package, which is what we are here to talk about today, picks up in East Potomac Park right by the water and then continues the project north over I-395, over Ohio Drive,

and the Washington Channel over Main Avenue and then through the Maryland Avenue overbuild where it ends at Ellie Interlocking.

That north package is progressive design build.

We are currently in final design and we are starting early works construction packages, so we're not building any of the actual

rail infrastructure, but what we're doing is early work that will help us to get ready to do that full construction work.

The full construction work is expected to start next year and those early works packages are starting now.

Next slide please.

We have a lot of stakeholders.

For those of you who live in the DC metro area, you know our federal partners are all around us.

Additionally, because this project is in between DC and Virginia, we work with both our Virginia partners and our district partners, so District Department of Transportation and VDOT.

We also, of course, work with our rail operators, Amtrak, VRE and CSX, FRA, the Federal Railroad Administration.

We also work with bike and pedestrian advocates in the district and Virginia.

and we have design oversight by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts.

And then we get permits from many of the federal entities that you see listed here and state.

Next, please.

So this project is a huge value add for the district.

We've already talked about one of the biggest things, which is the new bike pedestrian bridge over the Potomac River.

I think we may talk about this a little bit more, but the current path across the Potomac River is attached to the 14th Street Highway Bridge and it's seven and a half feet wide.

The new dedicated bike pedestrian bridge will be 16 feet wide, so more than double the current path.

In addition to that bike pedestrian bridge, we're adding additional safety and security features

We're improving the vertical and horizontal clearances of many of the rail bridges.

Why that is important is when you've got low bridges, you have a higher risk of bridge strikes from large vehicles like trucks and freight.

So by improving and making those bridges taller, you reduce the likelihood of bridge strikes.

Additionally, there is a pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue that will be replaced.

That bridge is currently not ADA accessible.

It has stairs on both sides, and we will be adding an ADA accessible ramp.

We're making improvements to the width of the sidewalk along Main Avenue, which is part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, and many other improvements listed here.

The total estimated value of those improvements just to DC is $300 million.

Next slide, please.

This is our design and construction timeline.

So this just shows you where we've been and where we're going.

So in 2022 was about the time that VPRA was the lead on the project.

Prior to that, DDOT was in the district, was actually the lead on the environmental document.

working in partnership with Federal Railroad Administration.

In 2002, the design of the project was taken from 15 percent, which is considered a conceptual design, to 30 percent, which is preliminary engineering.

Then our progressive design builder came on board and they, as I mentioned previously, are taking that to final design, which is expected by this fall.

We are doing the early work starting now, spring and summer, with full construction estimated to start towards the middle fall of next year and then lasting for five years through 2030.

Next slide, please.

This is just to show you that we are fitting a lot of infrastructure in a very small space.

From left to right, you'll see the existing Wamata Bridge.

That green box that you see above it is their air rights, so we cannot

put any structures within their air rights.

So next to that, you will see our new bike pedestrian bridge, like I said, 16 feet wide, more than double the current connection.

And you'll also see that bike pedestrian bridge connects in three places, two places on the Virginia side, one place on the DC side.

It connects with the Long Bridge Aquatic Center Trail, the Mount Vernon Trail, and then in DC, it connects with the bike lanes on Ohio Drive and East Potomac Park.

There is a ramp down to the Mount Vernon Trail.

And so you're seeing that ramp here, which is ADA accessible and also very easy for bikes to use.

And then 25 feet away from the bike pedestrian bridge is the new rail bridge and 25 feet away from that is the existing Long Bridge that will continue to be owned and operated by CSX.

Next slide, please.

This just shows you some renderings.

On the top is the existing Long Bridge.

It is over 100 years old.

On the bottom is the existing bridge on the left next to the proposed new bridge on the right.

The aesthetics of these structures is reviewed and approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Next slide, please.

This shows you the structure over Main Avenue.

One point to note is that the bridge across the Potomac River is completely separate from the existing bridge.

But when we get to I-395 in East Potomac Park and we have to bridge over the highway, the amount of space that we have to work in becomes so constrained that we actually have to remove the existing two tracks and rebuild

combined four-track corridor because there's no longer enough room for us to have two tracks separate from what is existing.

So at Main Avenue, the two tracks that you see in the top picture will have to be demolished and a four-track structure will be rebuilt.

While we are doing all of that work, rail will continue to operate for the entire duration of the project.

Next slide, please.

This shows you the improvement to the sidewalk that we're going to be able to make at Main Avenue, which as I mentioned earlier, is part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail.

Currently, because of where the wall of the rail bridge, which you can see here in the picture on the bottom, because of that, what we call a wing wall, but because of where that wall is located, the sidewalk has to narrow down to about 11 feet.

We are going to be taking down and rebuilding that wall, and we're pushing that wall back, and that will allow us to expand the sidewalk to 24 feet, which is great because this area is used a lot by bicycles and pedestrians.

Next slide, please.

This shows you on top a rendering of the Bicycle Pedestrian Bridge.

You can see it.

It's in the gray color in between the Lamada Yellow Line Bridge and the new Two-Track Rail Bridge.

The picture on the bottom shows you a rendering of what it would look like to be on the bridge.

And then the picture on the right hand side shows you that existing connection, which again, as we said, is seven and a half feet.

This will be, it's also attached to a bridge that is used by cars.

Whereas what we're building is going to be completely dedicated to bikes and pedestrians.

So it'll be a much more user-friendly option.

Next slide, please.

This shows you our existing bicycle and pedestrian network.

So you can see in yellow, that is where we are building the new bicycle pedestrian bridge.

And it is a critical link to the bike infrastructure, both on the Virginia side and on the DC side.

Next slide, please.

This shows you the landing of the bicycle pedestrian bridge in East Potomac Park on the DC side.

And you can see it where it connects into the bike lanes on Ohio Drive.

And you can go in either direction

The other thing for those of you who may have been following the project, our preliminary design had switchback ramps at the end, and we got a lot of feedback from cyclists and pedestrians that those switchback ramps did not feel very user-friendly.

As you can see, this touchdown now comes straight in to the landing.

Next slide, please.

There is a pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

that bridge used to be a rail bridge that led to a rail yard.

And that rail yard is now the Maryland Avenue Overbuild, where you'll find the Thalomander Hotel, formerly the Mandarin Hotel, and the Portals Development.

When the Maryland Avenue Overbuild was developed, that rail spur was turned into a pedestrian bridge.

I think that was back in about 2007.

and that bridge is right in the location where the new two tracks of rail need to go, and so that bridge will have to be removed, but we are planning to replace that bridge right next to the new four-track rail bridge.

That bridge is privately owned by the PPIA,

which is the Portals Public Improvement Association.

It's a nonprofit that's made up of the business owners on the Maryland Avenue overbuild.

And we've worked very closely with them, the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts on the design of the replacement pedestrian bridge.

Next slide, please.

So this shows you the new four-track rail bridge from an aerial view and then the new pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

One distinction I will make, because it can be a little bit confusing, the bike pedestrian bridge that we are building over the Potomac River does not connect to this pedestrian bridge.

They are two entirely separate structures.

The only reason that we are building this pedestrian bridge is because we have to remove the existing bridge.

So it is unrelated

to the new bike pedestrian bridge over the Potomac River that's going to land in East Potomac Park.

So this is a completely separate structure that just brings you across Main Avenue.

Next slide, please.

So this is just another picture showing you in blue.

That's the pedestrian bridge leading to the Maryland Avenue overbuild.

On the right-hand side is what that view from the bridge currently looks like and the existing two-track rail bridge.

Next slide, please.

And this shows you what the new pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue will look like, as I had mentioned in an earlier slide.

Currently, the landing of this bridge near the Washington Marina parking lot on Main Avenue only has stairs.

It's not ADA accessible.

Because we are replacing it, we are including an ADA accessible ramp.

We're also including stairs for people who would like a shorter, more direct connection.

And then additionally, that does require a little bit of land acquisition from the Washington Marina parking lot.

So we have redesigned that parking lot in order to make sure that they are left with the same number of parking spaces as what they had before.

Next slide, please.

This is just a rendering of what it will look like from the new Main Avenue pedestrian bridge.

This bridge is highly used during cherry blossom season.

So what is happening now in the area?

We are doing archaeological testing, vibration monitoring, borings and test piles.

Essentially we're testing the soil to help inform the final design to make sure that the bridge that we're building

will hold up for 100 years.

That's the service life of the bridge.

We are doing tree and brush clearing.

So these are those early works I was referring to that help us prepare for construction next year.

And we are also working on our traffic plans.

Obviously, we are building something in a major urban area.

We have to build structures over roadways

and we can't do that without some amount of disruption to traffic.

And so we work very closely with DDOT and our other partners to make sure that those plans are as least disruptive as possible.

So on that topic, stakeholder coordination, we coordinate very closely.

You saw many slides before we had a visual of all of our stakeholder logos.

many stakeholders that we work with on a regular basis.

We have weekly and monthly meetings to make sure that we have clear communication about what's going on throughout the course of the project as we get closer to construction, including regular meetings with rail operators, regular meetings with DDOT, the National Park Service, and adjacent property owners.

And these are all stakeholders that we've been meeting with regularly for years to make sure that

When we do get underway with work, that there are no surprises.

Obviously, we will never 100% reach every person who will be impacted by the project, but it is our goal to make sure that the information is out there and that we have been coordinating throughout the entire process every step of the way.

And some of the topics that we need about this isn't comprehensive, but

traffic and travel flow, noise and vibration, the structures themselves and the design of those structures, utilities, inspections and permits, and adjacent projects and special events.

Okay.

And with this, I believe that this is where I turn it over to Catherine.

Yes.

Okay.

And are we, are we taking questions in between?

Are we going to take all questions at the end?

Let's just take all questions at the end.

Great.

Okay.

Great.

Thanks, Naomi.

I'm Katherine Henley.

I'm with the Long Bridge Project Management Team, and I'm going to walk you through the upcoming travel impacts to Maiden Lane and Main Avenue during construction of the Main Avenue rail and pedestrian bridges that Naomi just showed.

So here you can see a schedule of when Maiden Lane and Main Avenue will see changes to traffic patterns.

Maiden Lane travel impacts will be starting this summer and Main Avenue travel impacts will start in the fall of this year.

Both Maiden Lane and Main Avenue will be impacted by construction until the end of the project in 2030.

So I'll walk you through what will be happening on these roadways and the mitigation that we're planning in order to minimize impacts to everyone traveling on these roads.

Next slide, please.

All right, so first, we'll start with the details of Maiden Lane.

Just to orient you to the location of Maiden Lane, it is this small road here to the east of 14th Street.

You can see to the left of the screen here, that's 14th Street, and to the right is this alamander hotel and the Portals buildings.

And Maiden Lane is this small road that diverges off of westbound Main Avenue and currently services the Portals 5 building.

which is 1331, their loading dock and garage entrance.

Maiden Lane is currently a one-way street that runs northbound from Main Avenue towards D Street.

So the most important thing to note is that Maiden Lane will stay open during construction and it will allow for continuous access to the 1331 garage and loading dock.

While Maiden Lane is currently a one-way street that comes off of Main Avenue,

During construction, it will be converted to a two-way street so it can continue to provide access to that 1331 building, loading dock, and the garage entrance.

This portion of Maiden Lane at the bottom, shown in orange, will be closed during construction, so Maiden Lane will no longer be accessible from Main Avenue, and it will only be accessible from up here on D Street.

The primary purpose of Maiden Lane during this time will be to provide access to the garage entrance and the loading dock

not access for through traffic.

There are also several parking spaces that will need to be removed for construction near the closure area in orange.

But again, there will still be uninterrupted access to the garage and loading dock.

Next, we'll take a look at the main avenue construction areas and schedule.

The primary purpose of this work, again, is to build the new railroad bridge and pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

So here you can see on the upper left graphic, this shows the westbound construction zone.

14th Street is on the left side of the graphic and Main Avenue runs from left to right.

Maiden Lane is up here next to this Elementor Hotel and the existing pedestrian bridge is here over Main Avenue.

So the westbound construction zone is this dark green area highlighted on the left graphic.

And then on the right side of the screen, this is the eastbound construction area, which is the inverse.

and when construction is occurring it will be there in that southern side of Main Avenue shown in teal.

The schedule at the bottom of the slide associates the colors of the construction areas with the approximate timeframes of when these phases will be under construction.

So the construction for the dark green westbound construction zone will start later in 2025 and it will run until the spring of 2026.

Then we will flip and implement the eastbound construction zone, which will be in place until early 2028.

And then in early 2028, we will convert back to the westbound construction zone, which will run for approximately a year until 2029.

And then again, convert back to the eastbound construction zone.

So we'll be flip flopping in order to construct this very complex Main Avenue rail bridge and the pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

The big picture goal of implementing these changes to Maiden Lane and Main Avenue is safe access for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians throughout construction.

This is a very busy corridor, so when we think about constructing the project, our goal is safe access for travel to the Salamander Hotel, the Washington Marina, the portals, and the passenger rail and freight corridor.

Our goal is also to streamline construction and minimize impacts as much as we can.

A few other things to note as listed here.

There will be a need for occasional nighttime lane closures and weekend detours throughout the project.

As shown on the previous slide, a portion of Maiden Lane will be closed to maximize safety during construction.

The northbound 14th Street ramp will be closed for limited periods throughout construction.

And finally, importantly, pedestrian access will be maintained across Main Avenue throughout the entire duration of construction.

We will be building a temporary pedestrian bridge that will be slightly further east from where it is today, closer to the marina entrance.

But pedestrian access will always be maintained from this alimenter and portals to the marina parking lot area.

All right, so here we'll go into more detail on the Main Avenue westbound construction pattern.

You can see 14th Street is here on the bottom left of the screen.

and Main Avenue runs from the bottom left to the upper right.

We will continue to maintain two travel lanes in both directions on Main Avenue in this westbound traffic pattern.

In this traffic pattern, you can see here there will be two eastbound lanes as there are today, and pedestrian traffic will be maintained as it is today, highlighted in pink.

The westbound travel movement will

also still have two lanes, but the difference is that the sidewalk on Main Avenue will not be open on the westbound side.

We'll share more details in the next slides on pedestrian access.

So again, in this westbound construction pattern, we have two travel lanes in each direction and the sidewalk will be maintained on the south side of Main Avenue.

Now looking at the eastbound construction traffic pattern on Main Avenue,

This traffic pattern maintains two lanes westbound, as shown in orange here.

The lanes will be shifted north, so the rightmost travel lane, as you can see, will use a portion of Maiden Lane under the railroad tracks, and then it will be directed to rejoin westbound Main Avenue up towards Independence Avenue.

So if you're going to westbound Independence Avenue, there will still be two lanes as there are today, but there will be this slight rerouting of travel.

In the eastbound direction, Main Avenue will be reduced to one travel lane.

and pedestrian traffic, as you can see here in pink, will be maintained on the eastbound side of Main Avenue and will be separated from vehicular lanes by concrete barriers and other demarcations.

Here we have more detail on the pedestrian and bike accessibility on Main Avenue for the westbound construction pattern.

So if you look at the upper left graphic here, you can see pedestrian access

in this traffic pattern will be maintained on the eastbound side of Main Avenue as shown in the dotted pink line that goes by the Marina parking lot.

And then pedestrians on the westbound side of Main Avenue will be routed around the work area for safety reasons.

Looking at this graphic on the right here, you can see that pedestrians on the westbound side of Main Avenue will be directed to D Street where they will follow detour signs down to 12th Street.

And this graphic also shows where the sidewalk closed signs will be on Main Avenue.

There will still be pedestrian access to the Salamander Hotel from this area.

And then the graphic on the bottom left shows the continuous pedestrian access along the eastbound lanes along Main Avenue.

Access is still provided on the north side of Main Avenue, but it is a little more circuitous as you can see here.

And then we will also have that temporary pedestrian bridge mentioned earlier that pedestrians can use to reach the eastbound sidewalk from the Salamander Hotel.

Then looking at the pedestrian and bicycle access in the eastbound construction phase, pedestrian and bike access will still be maintained along eastbound travel lanes, but it will be routed around the construction area, as you can see here on the upper left, for safety.

It will be separated from traffic by concrete barriers.

And then pedestrians on the westbound side of Main Avenue will be routed in the same detour as in the previous construction phase.

So first and foremost, there will be continuous pedestrian access throughout the project.

Pedestrian access will always be at least eight feet wide at all times.

And along the eastbound roadway, the bike ped access will actually double during the cherry blossom season.

As Naomi mentioned, this sidewalk is part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, and we know that bike and ped traffic in this area increases substantially during the cherry blossom season, so we will be doubling bicycle and pedestrian capacity during that season.

Alright, so just to sum things up for both the westbound and eastbound construction zones and the traffic patterns that we walked through today,

The lines on the graphics here represent the number of travel lanes in place during each construction phase.

The red lines are the westbound Main Avenue travel lanes and the lines in purple are the eastbound travel lanes.

The pedestrian routes are in pink.

So in the westbound construction phase here on the left in dark green, we will maintain two travel lanes in both directions.

In the eastbound construction phase in teal on the right, we will maintain two lanes westbound and one lane eastbound.

and there will be continuous pedestrian access throughout both phases of construction.

There are a number of work zone mitigation measures that go into the planning of this type of complex project here.

It starts with a comprehensive transportation management plan that looks at all of the facets of constructing the project and plans the phasing of how to maintain traffic, bicycle, and pedestrian access.

This plan analyzes the impacts of construction on the transportation system

and then develops a streamlined and minimized way to complete the work.

Our design builder for the Long Bridge project has completed the first version of the transportation management plan, and it is a living document that's regularly updated as conditions change and more information becomes available.

We're coordinating closely with DDOT on these traffic changes and construction impacts.

We have weekly coordination meetings with DDOT to talk about submittals and upcoming work, and we will continue this coordination throughout construction.

The design builder also developed a traffic incident management plan to streamline responses to traffic incidents.

So throughout construction we'll be monitoring traffic operations and safety, reviewing work zone setups and noting any crashes, and monitoring queue lengths and travel times.

We will continue to be in close coordination with DDOT to request signal timing changes and traffic data throughout construction so we can be proactive to minimize travel impacts.

We'll also proactively perform public outreach to ensure that the public is informed well in advance of any traffic changes associated with our project.

And finally, we know there are a lot of construction projects happening simultaneously in this area.

There are over 15 different infrastructure projects underway near the Long Bridge project and we coordinate regularly with these projects through an ongoing adjacent projects meeting where we share design and construction information and ensure that we're minimizing construction impacts to the public throughout the corridor.

The Long Bridge team is committed to doing everything we can to minimize disturbances such as noise and vibration during construction.

There are quite a few mitigation measures that we'll use that you can see here.

Of course, we'll follow the district's noise ordinance.

We'll make every effort to limit work at night, both for noise and safety reasons for our workers.

We'll regularly monitor noise levels to make sure that we're staying inside the established limits.

We'll use whisper quiet generators with lower decibel levels.

and backup alarms that regulate volume.

We'll monitor vibration to make sure that we're not impacting adjacent buildings and wherever possible we'll use drilling equipment rather than pilot driving to minimize noise.

Since the Long Bridge project includes work on the Potomac River and the Washington Channel, we'll make sure to communicate with the boating community about travel impacts on the water.

So this summer there will be work in the Potomac River to be aware of

In June, our design builder will be out on the Potomac doing geotechnical borings.

And then later in the summer, the design builder will be driving test piles out on the river.

So you'll see several barges with equipment out on the Potomac.

The navigation channel in the Potomac River will stay open throughout construction.

There might be minor encroachments to the navigation channel and periods when the navigation channel shifts under another span, but it will be open throughout construction.

We don't have any work on the Washington Channel plan for this summer, but when work does start over the Washington Channel, both the Washington Marina and the Marina parking lot will still be open.

There will be buoys to guide marine traffic and the entire Washington Channel will be a no wake zone.

I just would like to share, let's see, do we, yeah, it looks like we already have some questions.

Sure, awesome.

Great.

Can you go back to the slide around sidewalk closures?

The sidewalks will be closed.

Can you go back a couple slides?

There we go, that shows the diagram on the right hand side that shows the ped detour.

Unfortunately, there's no safe route

on the westbound side for pedestrians.

Right.

Right.

So we had to maintain, DDOT has requested that we maintain two westbound travel lanes at all times, at all times.

And we did counts here.

There's pedestrian counts.

Right.

It's also not an ADA accessible sidewalk.

So this is the, I mean, this is the, this is the problem.

Like, um, I mean, DDOT created an ADA accessible sidewalk and then, and then they're justifying maintaining, uh, then they're justifying closing the sidewalk completely because the ADA accessible side of the sidewalk isn't accessible and maintaining multiple travel lanes throughout.

Like this is the type of garbage that they do.

Like this can't, like, so just put yourself in, like, in the, like, put yourself, think of yourself as someone who uses a wheelchair.

So your question.

Go ahead.

No, no, that's fine.

I mean, we'll keep that and, you know, the blue route that's shown, you know, it is ADA accessible.

The route that's, you know, again, there now, it's not like, it wasn't a major pedestrian route.

So again, we have to kind of balance things since there aren't a lot of peds that do use this route and we're just concerned about backups on the 395 with westbound traffic.

And Sarah, one thing that I would also add is that

While the pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue has to be removed, we are planning to provide a temporary pedestrian bridge to cross over Main Avenue through the duration of construction.

So where you see that essentially end of the sidewalk closure, you will be able to get from one side of Main Avenue to the other side and it will be accessible.

Like on the overbuild is what you're saying?

Yeah.

There's no way to cross.

It's already super inaccessible.

There's no way to cross Main Avenue.

And I think that's made an avenue.

There's no way to cross safely.

And it's just making this even more inaccessible.

Like it was already starting with an inaccessible start and now this is just making it even more inaccessible.

And just like you can reroute pedestrians, somehow it's okay to reroute people with disabilities or people who don't drive all the way around, but it's not okay to reroute cars.

Okay.

Thank you for that question and comment.

We have Commissioner Fast.

Her hand is raised.

Whoops.

Great.

Okay, you can keep this photo up.

I want to clarify, because obviously, traffic is a concern for everybody.

So the access ramp, you know, you come down Main Avenue, the westbound, and a lot of folks take that left to get on to

395.

Does that remain open?

It's really hard to see in this photo.

Which direction of travel?

Can you say that again?

It's westbound.

So you're coming westbound on Main Avenue.

You go under the pedestrian bridge, and right now you can take a left turn to get onto the access road, which also coincides with Maiden Lane, to get onto

Main Avenue, and then to get onto 395.

I'm not following what you're talking.

So if you're going westbound on Main, you can't take a left until you get to Ohio Drive.

Okay, so maybe it's the eastbound lane.

Yeah, there's a 14th Street ramp, which you can see at the bottom of the area.

That takes you eastbound.

Yeah, and that's an off-ramp.

Correct, that's an off-ramp, I see that.

On the westbound side, though, when you come down Main Avenue, and you go underneath the pedestrian bridge, you can continue and you end up on 12th Street, or you can take a left,

and from the left-hand turn, you can loop around.

Then the salamander is on your right-hand side.

Yeah.

Mm hmm.

And you turn left and you're turning left on what is essentially a high old maiden maiden.

OK, in front of the salamander.

All right, and you and you continue underneath the pedestrian bridge, underneath the railroad, can you get on three ninety five?

It will remain open.

OK, alright, thank you, that's great.

My second question is a question I raised at the last meeting that we had over at the Southwest BID, and that is the coordination with DDOT.

So I'm happy to see that you're planning for things around the Cherry Blossom Festival.

However, it is really critical that there is a coordination with DDOT to other events that go on at the Wharf, such as the Holiday Parade of Boats, the Mardi Gras,

Pride that's going to happen right now.

We have to be able to have some coordination with if you're changing signalization on Main Avenue to move cars through, we have to be able that pedestrians are able to cross Main Avenue and have sufficient enough time to get across when we have these large

cohorts of people coming to and from the wharf.

So, you know, I'm really concerned more about how this is going to work for pedestrian safety, not even past that, but just in this area of Main Avenue between 6th Street and 9th, while all of this is happening and we're trying to move cars and lanes are blocked off and there's no real

Coordination with DDOT to ensure that pedestrians can cross everywhere safely.

9th Street, 7th Street, make it through the traffic light as you go underneath Main Avenue to and from the Tidal Basin, those kinds of things.

So I think, you know, for 6th Street and 9th Street, part of why that's not shown here is that's well beyond our project limits.

So we don't have any changes to traffic that we will be implementing between 6th Street and 9th Street.

But as far as events,

We're not only coordinating with DDOT in regards to cherry blossom, but for cherry blossom specifically, because of the huge influx of tourists and pedestrians to that area accessing the tidal basin, we're providing an additional pedestrian path, which is something that DDOT had been piloting for the past few years.

So we want to make sure that we continue to provide that expanded access, but we are happy to coordinate with them

on other events in which there may be a lot of pedestrians being brought to the wharf.

But yeah, our project is not going to impact between 7th and 9th Street.

All right, thank you so much for answering that question, Naomi.

We're going to move on to the next question.

We have a hand raised by Mr. Kevin O'Brien from WABA.

Sure thing.

Sure thing.

You mentioned the pedestrian counts for the north side sidewalk.

It does not surprise me that those counts are not high because they don't necessarily connect to a whole lot on the north side.

Do you have similar counts for that pedestrian bridge

and I ask because I feel like there's a little bit of sort of patting ourselves on the back about, oh, we're going to maintain that pedestrian crossing, we're going to build a temporary structure.

Frankly, that structure doesn't do a whole, like doesn't

and so on.

So, you know, it doesn't do a whole lot of connectivity from my perspective.

You know, yeah, it's a great way for folks who are staying at the hotel to get across Main Avenue and over to the Wharf.

But in terms of, like, connectivity to the, you know, the larger sort of transportation, active transportation network, it's pretty limited.

So, you know, I do caution, like, maybe this sort of highlighting is, oh, yes, that's going to be the key thing.

The biggest piece of maintaining of connectivity that you can and sounds like you are going to do is maintaining

and the Riverwalk Trail access on the south side of Main Avenue.

That is the key pedestrian route in here.

Everything else that you can do is certainly going to be important, but I just caution that that pedestrian bridge is not, I wouldn't say it should be considered a keystone piece of bike-ped connectivity as part of this project.

You know, it's pretty limited now.

It's going to remain pretty limited in terms of its value to residents, certainly to, you know, visitors.

Sure, it's great.

Yeah, I can speak to that.

So the first thing I would say is I think what I would consider a keystone is really the bike pedestrian bridge across the Potomac River.

A keystone and a highlight of this project, and as far as the main avenue pedestrian bridge, and I may not have done a great job of explaining that, but why we are replacing it is because we have to remove it for the rail, right?

Not because like we, it's critical, but I will say like that

That pedestrian bridge is very important to the business owners and I think I mentioned it is a privately owned bridge.

As far as the counts, I think I would agree with you it is very low except for Cherry Blossom.

It's extremely high as a way for visitors to access Cherry Blossom and it is the way that most mapping applications route you to get to the Tidal Basin.

Outside of Cherry Blossom Festival, it is not heavily used.

So I think to your point that maintaining access on the south side is really that critical link year round.

I think we absolutely agree.

So you know as far as like the pat on the back I think it's it's important to the owners of the existing bridge that this access is maintained and I do think it is important to the residents on the Maryland Avenue overbuild that the that ability to cross is maintained and for Cherry Blossom.

So but I do think like as we're not highlighting

the temporary bridge as a keystone.

But I would say that the bike pedestrian bridge across the Potomac River absolutely is a highlight of this project.

Thanks so much, Naomi.

We're going to move on to the next question.

We had about a few minutes left at the meeting, so we're going to go to Katherine White.

I'm going to allow you to unmute yourself and ask your question.

OK, thanks.

I just wanted to ask, kind of to Karthik's point about the

The circuitous and not ADA accessible like route that's highlighted in blue on the map.

If it would be possible or if there's already a plan in place, perhaps to like really aggressively sign just the north side of that pedestrian area, particularly right at the Ohio Avenue crosswalk, just so people are, if you find yourself wandering on that north cross or north

This is a sidewalk that you know if you need to get under the bridge that it's better to do so on the south side because otherwise you're going to take this very circuitous route.

and then the same on the on the east side so like even if you had like a lot of saying like no crossings after this point and you had a map even I feel like that's helpful so that you don't because I often find myself wandering or even on my bike I'm on a sidewalk and I think there's gonna continue to be a sidewalk and then all of a sudden there's no it ends and there's no like good place for me to get where I'm going so I just don't want people to do

decide to cross Main Avenue on foot without a crossing because that's a pretty dangerous place to cross.

Yes, there is.

Thank you for answering that question, Sarah.

We do have the Council Member for War 6 office on Ms. Jeanine Madison.

Do you mind unmuting yourself?

Yes, sorry about that.

Can you guys hear me?

So I have a couple of questions.

Great question.

So we've been working with Song Kim, who is from DDOT's IPMA division and also the chief engineer, Rick Kenny.

And we also work with their outreach team as well and have been keeping German vigil

I think he's the head of their comms department in the loop.

And is there anyone else, Meredith and Patrice, that I'm missing?

I think those are the key.

Yeah.

And then, so I gathered from what you said about coordinating with the other construction projects and infrastructure projects that are happening, that 395 spur stuff that's happening on the six little bridges, is that something that's on your radar?

It is, yep.

Okay.

And then last question is, our favorite topic on the bike, the choke point underneath that pedestrian bridge on Main Avenue that goes to the salamander, is that at all addressed in this project?

It's kind of seems like because you're pushing that wall back, it could be.

That is something that we've been looking at for a long, long time.

It's between where the Washington Marina is and the Tidal Basin.

We can go back to that slide.

That is where the sidewalk narrows down to 11 feet.

We're pushing that wall back and we'll be able to expand the sidewalk to 24 feet on the south side by the Marina.

And I think we're going back to where that visual is.

We got to keep going back though.

Not keep going, keep going.

It's right near the 14th Street off ramp.

Here we go.

So you can, nope, right there.

This one.

So you can see on the right hand side, it's 11 and a half feet.

Yeah, good question.

So if you look on the left hand side, what you see in purple is as far back as it goes towards the fish market.

Yeah, that's where the marina parking lot is.

So it basically goes, the expansion goes until you get to the Marina parking lot.

And I believe that the sidewalk does widen at that point.

I would just encourage you guys as you're talking to DDOT, because we have an opportunity here is what I can say, to look at where that narrows and if DDOT can pitch in and offer some solutions

a little farther back where the sidewalk begins to narrow.

I think we would be happy to have that conversation with them.

I'm looking at it now.

The road is not very wide at all when 395 comes out to Main.

And that's part of the problem.

Got it.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you, thank you.

And we are in touch with them.

We've done two big rounds of outreach to the boating community, including those two groups.

And we've invited them to participate in these meetings and we'll continue to reach out to them.

We appreciate all input on who we should be talking to to make sure we don't miss any groups.

Well, Meredith, we do have one more question.

I know it's 132.

Can we take this last question and then go ahead?

Great.

I want to agree with the sentiment on the value of the Potomac River crossing or EPP to the other side.

But the landing on the west side of EPP, there are

Either the sidewalks are non-existent or they're in really bad shape.

They're definitely not possible.

They're definitely not passable.

Is there anything going on with NPS?

We are actually working with NPS and will be adding a portion of sidewalk on Ohio Drive where there is not currently sidewalk.

I do not have a map of that.

Tom, if you want to speak more than that, I don't want to go too far in the weeds.

As far as improving the existing sidewalks, that's just like pretty far outside the scope of this project.

like I would say that they are well aware and as you know they are doing a project right now to rehabilitate their seawalls because anyone who's been in East Potomac Park can see that it is sinking.

It was built on fill right and so they are they are rehabilitating.

They're currently doing the area around the Tidal Basin.

I know they have plans to also do East Potomac Park.

I don't believe that that portion of their project is currently funded or scheduled but it has been

than planned for them.

I can tell you, it's many years out.

And just thinking outside the box, too.

I mean, there's parking.

There's also, like, there's lane miles there that, I mean, it's really like a recreational area.

There doesn't need to be that much car infrastructure.

They really could repurpose that just to make a safe place for people to walk and roll.

Meredith, we did have one question in the chat.

Yes, yes.

And if anyone needs to go while we're finishing up, that's OK.

Yes, so so sorry if I missed this, but when do you expect Maiden Lane to become a two way street?

And with this change, can you confirm that parking will no longer be allowed on Maiden Lane near Portals 5

with 1331.

Yes, I'm here.

So, and Tom, if you want to interject too, but so it's going to, made in lane that two-way conversion is going to happen very early on in the project.

Yeah, we will be making modifications in the third quarter of this year.

And you asked about parking.

So the road is pretty narrow.

And unfortunately, you know, we tried, but we will not be able to maintain parking along that section.

I think there's like maybe

There will no longer be any parking underneath the structures on Maiden Lake.

Okay.

Great.

Okay.

Well, I'm glad we got to address everyone's questions.

If you have any other questions between now and the next time we have a community advisory group meeting, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at the email address that's showing on the slide right now, or the phone number.

Both are managed by people who will reply to you individually to your questions.

We also encourage you to sign up for our newsletter if you haven't already on the Long Bridge website where you'll receive regular updates as we have additional information.

And, of course, our social media channels are always a great way to reach out to us.

We've done quite a lot of outreach this spring, which most of you are probably aware of with public meetings.

We've attended a lot of events, including Bike to Work Day, so we've continued to reach out to the community.

Please, as one of our earlier speakers noted, let us know if there are groups that you think we should be speaking with or events that you recommend that we attend.

We would really like your collaboration and assistance making sure that we reach the people who will be impacted by this project.

So thank you for joining us today and we'll be back in touch in the next quarter, in the next three months to schedule another one of these calls.

Thank you.