The District is moving ahead with plans to replace the 11th Street bridges that span the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington, even as a local historic preservation group is suing to stop the project.
Mayor Adrian Fenty on Friday announced that the city had selected a contractor for the $300 million project to replace what the city has called “deficient” bridges.
The multiyear project will build two sets of new bridges — one for freeway traffic and one for local traffic. The freeway spans will connect Interstate 295 with the Southeast/Southwest Freeway, forming a route between the north and east that is currently cut off.
The local span will connect neighborhoods on both sides of the river, plus have bicycle and pedestrian routes along with streetcar tracks for the proposed Anacostia streetcar line.
The District chose two companies in partnership to build the project: Swedish firm Skanska along with La Plata, Md.-based Facchina.
The city called it the largest construction project in the District Department of Transportation’s history. It says the project will improve connections, reduce traffic and provide alternative evacuation routes from the nation’s capital.
But a lawsuit filed in February against the Federal Highway Administration and the city in U.S. District Court by the Capitol Hill Restoration Society says the project would cause “significant, irreversible, adverse effects on national, scenic, and ecological resources.”
It says the project will destroy 1.5 acres of federal parkland and force the relocation of the Anacostia Boathouse, plus worsen air pollution and greenhouse gases.
The suit calls for an injunction until the project complies with the National Environmental Policy Act. The project is slated to begin in August — if the injunction doesn’t waylay it. Earlier this month, the District asked for an extension until June 5 to respond to the lawsuit.
