DC's VA Ave Tunnel: EIS Decision Urged

[The Davy Crockett]

DC's non-voting representative in Congress, Elanor Holmes Norton has requested the U.S. DOT to issue its Environmental Impact Statement on CSX's proposed rebuilding of the over 100 year old Virginia Avenue tunnel.

Link to her press release here. This link has the full letter she wrote to Secretary Foxx

From her press release:

Mar 31, 2014

Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today wrote a letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requesting that the Virginia Avenue Tunnel projects final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) be completed as soon as possible so that her constituents get answers as to whether or how the proposed project will proceed.

Norton, in her letter, wrote, Because my constituents became and continued to be frustrated by this process, I held two public meetings on November 23, 2013, and January 25, 2014. At both of these meetings, my constituents asked very good questions expecting to get answers. Yet, as required by the process, they were only given information specific to the project that had been shared in the last meeting from the Draft EIS of July 31, 2013. I was particularly upset to be told that the process prevents other government agencies from speaking publicly about the proposalI ask that you help ensure the prompt release of the Final EIS for the Virginia Avenue Tunnel project so that the surrounding community is aware of the preferred alternative, any impacts this project may have on them, and any mitigation and benefits to the surrounding community.

 

[afigg]

Congresswoman Norton has gotten involved in supporting/pandering to a small local group of residents who, IMO, are over-reacting to a several year construction project along an active freight rail line and next to a major highway. The rail line, the Virginia Ave tunnel, and I-695 were there long before any of them moved in. Ok, maybe there are 1 or 2 long time residents who were there before I-695 cleared out the houses and neighborhood that was there back in the 1950s. This is a vital project for CSX, but the statements on-line and quotes I have seen from the locals with demands that CSX build a new route somewhere else, demonstrate that they are taking a very reactionary NIMBY view, despite that there is already a rail line and highway in their back yard! This is turning into a major headache for CSX.

For those interested in the presentations and public material, CSX set up a website for the Virginia Avenue tunnel project for public outreach requirements of NEPA, but their PR efforts are not going well.

 

[Ryan]

Congresswoman Norton has gotten involved in supporting/pandering to a small local group of residents who, IMO, are over-reacting to a several year construction project along an active freight rail line and next to a major highway. The rail line, the Virginia Ave tunnel, and I-695 were there long before any of them moved in. Ok, maybe there are 1 or 2 long time residents who were there before I-695 cleared out the houses and neighborhood that was there back in the 1950s.

Impossible. The people complaining all live on blocks that used to hold public housing. They were all demolished about 10 years ago, and the lots sat vacant until ~5 years ago, when construction of high end rowhouses started. The people moving in there deliberately moved directly next to the freeway and any amount of research on the neighborhood would have turned up that this was a thing. The whole area is still a massive construction site, there are at least 3 apartment/condo buildings under construction.

I worked right there (300 M St and 1100 NJ Ave) from 2007-2010 and have friends that lived in one of the buildings there until last year, so I'm very familiar with the surroundings. I used to walk past the west portal of the VA Ave tunnel twice a day walking to and from Union Station.

These people need to suck it up and understand that they live in the city.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

While I fully agree that this is a NIMBY issue, I think Delegate Norton is looking to see what she can get out of CSX for her constituents in exchange for the project going through.

I had some things to do this afternoon in downtown DC, and while riding Metro's Yellow Line across the Potomac, I looked over at Long Bridge and thought to myself that CSX could show its commitment to being a good neighbor by painting the bridge. I can't remember the last time the bridge was painted, and quite frankly, in its current state, it is an eyesore. So much so that it appears the National Park Service has painted the bridge where it goes over Ohio Drive in East Potomac Park.

 

[George Harris]

Norton's whines remind me of a joke about people who interfere with a process and then complain because it was not completed, which is what is being done here:

This is an examle of the juvenile delinquint who murders his parents and then begs the judge for mercy because he is an orphan.