D.C. residents will have their first chance next month to learn more about a planned expansion of the Virginia Avenue railroad tunnel, a massive project that will ease a major freight bottleneck but also disrupt the southern end of Capitol Hill.

An open house meeting on the project is slated for Sept. 14, the first of several federally required steps in an environmental assessment aimed at evaluating the impact of the project on the surrounding area that hugs the Southeast Freeway near the Navy Yard and the Capitol Riverfront.