Drivers from Maryland and areas east of the District will have to add as much as 30 minutes to their commutes downtown, as the D.C. Department of Transportation begins a two-year rebuilding of a New York Avenue bridge. The 44-year-old bridge, located between Florida Avenue NE and Penn Street NE, will be demolished and rebuilt in two phases. Construction is scheduled to begin on April 25.
Two of the bridge’s six lanes will be closed during each phase of construction, severely shrinking the traffic capacity of a major gateway to the city. Sidewalks on each side of the bridge will also be closed to traffic. DDOT officials estimate drivers on New York Avenue will add between 15 and 30 minutes of travel time to their commutes.
The bridge’s poor condition necessitates the rebuild, officials said. It’s classified as structurally deficient by the Federal Highway Administration because of the poor condition of the girders that hold it up.
Mayor Vince Gray said he was concerned for the safety of travelers on top of and under the bridge — Amtrak, Metrorail, and CSX trains all travel on tracks underneath New York Avenue.
“There’s no other way to do it. This aging structure needs to be replaced for the safety of everyone who crosses it and for the rail traffic underneath it,” Gray said. “But I don’t want to understate the impact of taking away two lanes. There will be backups and it will take significantly longer to get down New York Avenue until this project is complete.”
About 87,000 vehicles travel across the bridge each day, and with its capacity cut by a third, transportation officials are providing incentives to get drivers out of their cars. The first 2,000 people accepted into the city’s Bridge Bucks program will receive a monthly stipend of $50 applied toward one of several alternative transportation options, including Metrorail, Metrobus, MARC trains, and Maryland Transit Administration buses. Those who are accepted will have to reapply for the program every three months.
The stipend is modeled after a similar initiative used during the reconstruction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the Frederick Douglas Bridge on South Capitol Street.
DDOT provided on its website information on several alternative driving routes and created a Twitter account to give traffic and construction updates on the bridge work.
