The South Capitol Street Environmental Impact Statement project has posted its Winter 2006 newsletter with the latest updates on the study. Two build alternatives have been identified and are briefly described--the less costly one would keep the South Capitol and M intersection in two levels, and would create a "traditional" intersection at Potomac Avenue. The second and more wide-ranging alternative would reconstruct South Capitol and M to be "at-grade", and would create a traffic circle interchange at Potomac Avenue (there are differences in the two plans for east side of the bridge as well). The various plans (the two build alternatives, plus a "Transportation System Management" alternative and a No-Build alternative) will be presented at public meetings later this winter, then there will be ANC meetings, environmental analyses, and finally the preparation of the draft EIS. In the meantime, DDOT will be discussing this project as part of its Feb. 25 Open House. Also, both the South Capitol Street EIS and the 11th Street Bridges EIS teams will present their pedestrian and bicycle concepts to a meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Council on March 8. See my South Capitol Street and South Capitol Street Bridge pages for more details, photos, links, etc.

DDOT and the Anacostia Coordinating Council are holding an "Anacostia Transportation and Development Projects Information Fair," on Saturday Feb. 25 from 9 am to 2 pm, at 2616 MLK Ave., SE. It will be providing details on the plans for the Anacostia area, which include 11th Street and South Capitol Street Bridges, the Anacostia Waterfront projects and Poplar Point, as well as other projects that aren't in my Near Southeast purview. There will be bus tours of the sites, and food will be provided. Pre-registration encouraged but not required.

While trying to add some photos of the Faison properties along 1st Street, I realized that my South Capitol Street Corridor page had become way too huge and unwieldy, and that with the various plans getting underway for the few blocks between I, M, South Capitol, and New Jersey, perhaps that little land of taxi companies and auto shops needed its own page, so I created the North of M page, and rejiggered my Near Southeast map yet again. I added quite a few new pictures, and this is where I'll track these projects (Faison's, Ron Cohen's Square 699 plans, JPI's two projects on 1st and on I) until they get big enough to warrant their own pages. I also added a couple of new pictures to the SouthCap page to make up for its losses.

More posts: mnorth, South Capitol St.