Photo by Nikoo Yahyazadeh.
After thousands of people signed a petition in support of a long-delayed project to repair the Rock Creek Park trail, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) jumped into the mix and asked the National Park Service to explain what exactly the holdup is.
In a letter Norton released today, Tara Morrison, Superintendent of Rock Creek Park, says an Environmental Assessment (EA) is currently with the Federal Highway Administration for approval. A Finding of No Significant Impact (or, delightfully, FONSI) document is expected to be signed by FHWA in the “near future” and NPS is currently drafting their own, which will also be reviewed by the District Department of Transportation.
“Construction could begin on the project as early as Fiscal Year 2015,” the letter states.
While any movement is welcome news, Greg Billing from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association says the pace thus far has been frustrating.
“This process has been moving slowly since about 2006 to at least get the environmental work done and it has basically ground to a stop,” Billing, who serves as WABA’s advocacy coordinator, said.
Until the EA is finished, only 30 percent of the design can only be completed. “We’ve been waiting on that document since December 2011,” said Billing of when the EA was submitted and the last public meeting was held. “Everything else has been held up from that.”
The funding for the repairs are in place, with federal funds actually in jeopardy as the project drags on. “That’s been one of our big concerns — that long-time work to get funding lined up could disappear because it’s taken them so long to get this work done,” he said.
Billing, who met with Morrison and representatives from DDOT in early March, says after the EA process is over, the agencies will have to finish the remaining 70 percent of the design, which may take from six months to a year. After construction documents are drawn up, they’ll put out a design-build contract, which merges both the design and construction process. While this saves time, Billing said, the concern is that there’s one fewer time to give input on what will be built.
All things considered, we’re likely years away from completion of this project. And in the meantime, Billing said, riders are avoiding the trail and riding on the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. (Yes, this is legal.) “The trail is in such terrible condition,” Billing said. “When it rains, it’s flooded and it’s muddy. It’s cracked, and the pavement is in such terrible condition that it’s uncomfortable and unpleasant to ride on. It still has awful trail design from the mid-80s.”
“People are already not riding it,” Billing said, “And that’s the unfortunate thing of this delay. What should be a great trail in our nation’s capital has become this trail that everyone avoids.”
And this is not isolated to the Rock Creek Park trail. Indeed, at a recent DDOT oversight hearing, the agency was unable to provide completion dates for several major trail projects, which have either been delayed or are unfinished.
“This is not an outlier,” Billing said of the Rock Creek Park trail, adding that the Metropolitan Branch Trail is years behind schedule. “It’s gonna take continued work to do engagement around our community to keep elected officials, but also the agencies that funded with public dollars, to do the things they committed to years before and see them through completion.”
In case you’re wondering just how long this has been dragging on, Billing provided a WABA newsletter from 1993 that touted funding for a Rock Creek trail project.
Via Greg Billing/WABA.
