Final environmental report issued on Virginia Avenue Tunnel project

Last edited Tue Jun 17, 2014, 11:19 AM - Edit history (6)

Final environmental report issued on Virginia Avenue Tunnel project

Rail News: CSX Transportation 6/16/2014

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and District Department of Transportation (DDOT) late last week released a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed reconstruction of the Virginia Avenue Tunnel in Washington, D.C.

Owned and maintained by CSX Transportation, the 4,000-foot, single-track tunnel is located in southeast D.C. beneath the eastbound lanes of Virginia Avenue. CSX plans to reconstruct and rehabilitate the 110-year-old tunnel — including the addition of a second set of tracks — to accommodate double-stack trains and eliminate a chokepoint caused by the single track.

The FEIS incorporates feedback from the community and identifies "two new tunnels" as the preferred alternative for the project. The option best meets the project’s purpose and need, addresses community concerns about trains moving through an open trench during construction and minimizes impacts to nearby residents, FHWA and DDOT officials said in a press release. The alternative also has the shortest estimated construction timeframe at about 30 to 42 months.

The FHWA and DDOT will hold a public meeting on July 1 in D.C. to present details on construction and the FEIS, and to answer questions. The FEIS will be available for review for 30 days before an official decision is issued. Depending on the decision, CSX will share additional information about project timing and other specifics.

After delays, plan to rebuild CSX Virginia Ave. tunnel in Southeast D.C. moves forward

By Luz Lazo June 13 

A proposal to rebuild the Virginia Avenue tunnel in Southeast Washington, which officials say is needed for safety reasons and to meet East Coast rail needs, appears to be moving forward after years of delays.

The District Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration on Friday released a final environmental impact statement on the project, laying out a preferred construction process that the agencies say balances CSX Transportation’s need to reconstruct the 110-year-old single-track tunnel and neighbors’ concerns.

The project has become one of the District’s most hotly debated proposals. An entire community in Southeast is fighting it, with some elected officials also raising concerns about rail safety and the risk of having freight trains passing through residential neighborhoods and the seat of the federal government.
....

“We absolutely should not be moving forward with a massive rail infrastructure project before we know exactly how it is going to affect our plans for passenger rail and commuter rail coming through the city going forward,” said David Garber, a member of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission who represents the Navy Yard neighborhood. “This is a rail line that doesn’t have any positive benefit to the city in any possible way.”

Disclaimers: I own shares of CSX, and I'm partial to rail transport. Putting those aside, anyone who says “this is a rail line that doesn’t have any positive benefit to the city in any possible way" either:

a) wears a hair shirt and lives in a cave, or
b) has rocks in his head.

Here's one comment to the WaPo article:

Ragnarov 9:10 AM EDT 

It is insane to dramatically expand a train tunnel LESS THAN A MILE FROM THE CAPITOL BUILDING to provide for a 4x increase in capacity - especially when NONE of these trains stops in DC. Tell CSX to be good corporate neighbors and move their dangerous trains away from our city of 700,000 and away from our Nation's Captial.

The upside to all this is that, once the construction is done, the residents will be able to return to their bucolic existence in the pastoral setting of the Southeast Freeway.


This is looking north toward the Southeast Freeway where South Capitol Street passes underneath. I-395 north goes under the Mall and the Department of Labor's Frances Perkins Building.


The Washington Post. Gene Thorp - The Washington Post. Published on January 18, 2014, 11:34 p.m.

Concern over proposed rail tunnel reconstruction
CSX is proposing to reconstruct this 110-year-old railroad tunnel. Residents are concerned that the construction will impact their neighborhood.

Virginia Avenue Tunnel

DC Safe Rail

Here's a comment from Breakfast links: Making waves:

Re CSX

I blame the EYA development company. Really, I do.

Why? Because the folks yelling the loudest about this are the ones who paid 700k plus in 2008 to buy one of EYAs town houses at Capitol Quarter.

In late 2007/ early 2008 when EYA started construction, CSX had already been talking about this for nearly 4 years. I actually asked an EYA sales person at their sales center what the schedule was for the CSX improvements and I was led to another room away from the interested buyers and given some line about how they didn't know anything and the work would probably never happen. I asked the question a week later on a blog EYA had set up to discuss the development, and the question disappeared the next day. Basically, EYA wanted nothing to remotely interfere with their sales and so they weren't going to say anything about a enormous multi year infrastructure project to take place mere feet from dozens of their homes they were trying to sell for 700k and up.

Fast forward 6 years, and we have a bunch of people making any specious argument they can make so the value of their now 900k homes aren't affected.

CSX doesn't owe anyone anything. It's their tunnel and it isn't their fault you bought a 700K house feet from it.

The overall good that being able to ship double the freight with min ally more fuel is a benefit to very tax payer and shopper on the east coast.

by Jake on May 1, 2014 2:16 pm