Saturday, June 17, 2006

And the ramps for the 1,000 space underground garage beneath
the South Capitol Commons?

The March 2005 South Capitol Street report by the US National Capital Planning
Commission is NCPC's first to show the revised planning for that corridor with the Nationals Stadium.

It shows a traffic oval at the intersection of South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue. The concept of the oval, arrayed vertically, provides a park that mimics the idea of a linear greenway but confined within this oval which extends only as far north as the south side of P Street.

The space in this oval is named the South Capitol Commons, and accordingly it is to sits atop a 3,000 underground parking garage.
To improve traffic flow, the task force -- as suggested by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) -- recommends the creation of an oval rotary where the bridge interscets with South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue. This would create the oportunity to develop South Capitol Commons, a new seven acre green space, in the oval traffic rotary's interior.

This lively open space would be an ideal location for public gatherings, commermorative works, civic art, and landscaping. It would also serve as the stadium's front door and an intermodel transit center, featuring two levels of underground parking for up to 1,000 cars and a light rail station at grade to the east of the rotary.

The creation of South Capitol Waterfront Park is critical to protect South Capitol Street views between the U.S. Capitol and the Anacostia waterfront. Accessible from the common by a tierred staircase, the park would provide a direct connection from the common to the waterfront and create additional opportunities for recreational space, public events, and a major memorial or museums.


http://www.ncpc.gov/publications_press/s_cap/NCPC_SouthCapitolSt.pdf




This garage would need to have access points -- ramps -- with portals to handle traffic, particularly that from the replacement South Capitol Street/Frederick Douglass Bridge, which is planned to connect to this oval at the southeast.

Yet none are shown.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just found your site; it raises a number of excellent points. I really wish there were better coverage of the ballpark's not-so-shiny side so that these issues could be discussed publicly and possibly improved upon while there's time to make changes.

Douglas Andrew Willinger said...

And to do so while minimizing waste.