Southwest Waterfront redevelopment, Water St. to be closed

[PotomacCyclist]

The Wharf is a $2 billion multi-building redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront. (Not a security officer aboard the USS Enterprise.) Groundbreaking is scheduled for March 19. Construction could continue for the next 4 years. The new development will include apartments, offices, condos, hotels, a movie theater, a jazz club, a piano bar, a country-western bar and a 6,000-seat concert hall. The developer also wants to add LED lighting to the nearby Case Bridge (I-395).

Of particular note for cyclists is the removal of much or all of Water Street. The new buildings will be constructed up to Maine Ave. (A cycle track is planned for Maine Ave. See the next post below.)

One of the JDLand pictures shows the Kastles team tennis stadium torn down. That was only built in 2011. I think the new development includes another Kastles stadium, but I haven’t looked at the plans recently. It shouldn’t take that long to build a new stadium. The old one wasn’t that large (maybe 1,000 capacity?) and it was made of scaffolding and bench seating for the most part. I hope they improve the drainage system. When it rained during a match last summer, the entire pedestrian area got flooded, even though it was only a typical summer rain shower.

I’m not sure of the exact construction schedule, but expect Water Street to be closed at some point in the near future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/southwest-waterfront-redevelopment-set-to-break-ground-but-not-without-concerns/2014/03/07/7572dd28-a53c-11e3-8466-d34c451760b9_story.html?hpid=z2

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-business/wp/2014/03/07/a-walking-tour-in-pictures-the-southwest-waterfront-on-the-eve-of-demolition/

According to the project website, there will be 1,750 bicycle parking spaces throughout the development:

http://www.thewharfdc.com/office/office_numbers.htm

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According to the following blog, there will be a 10-ft. wide “bike lane” and a 15-ft. wide sidewalk along Maine Ave., separated by a row of street trees. Sounds more like a cycle track to me. If so, good.

http://southwestquadrant.blogspot.com/p/southwest-waterfront-redevelopment.html

A wide Wharf Street will replace Water Street. A 20-ft. wide section will be reserved for seating. The middle 20 ft. will have limited vehicular travel and possibly a street car. The other 20 ft., closest to the shoreline, will be reserved for pedestrians.

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June/July 2015

MAINE AVENUE FISH MARKET PLAN

Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, the developer of The Wharf, also holds a 99-year lease on the Maine Avenue Fish Market. They have essentially combined the market with The Wharf in their planning.

They have just revealed plans for an extensive renewal of the fish market. I’m not sure if I heard about this before. I thought they might skip over the fish market, but it makes sense to do some work there too. The parking lots and access lanes are in poor shape and the plot looks run-down and just plain ugly. It’s the first thing that visitors see when traveling from the Tidal Basin to the future Wharf.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/07/here-s-the-plan-to-restore-d-c-s-historic-maine.html

In this video, the CEO of PN Hoffman (one of the partners in Hoffman-Madison Waterfront) says that they will add a rum distillery, a pavilion, outdoor seating and a large market hall with a beer/wine shop, a restaurant, and an Italian butcher. (I don’t know why they specify an Italian butcher, but that’s what the article says.) The fish market will be retained but spruced up a bit. The CEO says that they are working with the people who live aboard the boats in the nearby marina to address concerns that they may have.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts is looking at the proposal. They seem cautiously optimistic about the plans.

The article includes a slideshow of concept renderings, plus a site plan. The text of the plan document is too small to read clearly. You can open the image in a new tab to get a slightly larger display:

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/6382722/fish-market-site-plan.jpg

There is no specific mention of cycling accommodations. But given that the main Wharf development will include 1,750 bicycle parking spaces, I think they may include additional bike parking near the fish market where possible. Even if they don’t add many bike racks at the new fish market development, there should be plenty of bike racks at the nearby Wharf buildings, maybe within 50 feet.

They included cyclists in slides 4-6. They wouldn’t have done this if they were planning to keep bikes out of the new fish market area.

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I also noticed that they will bury the overhead utility lines.

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This is what the fish market looks like today:

https://goo.gl/maps/rOibF

Topic

[lordofthemark]

@creadinger 84763 wrote:

There was a large crane parked across Water St. in front of Philips this morning. They had closed the street down to two total lanes.

On Water st, you should not feel bad about taking the lane, or claiming your space farther to the left. It’s not much of a through street, and drivers can simply wait a few seconds to get where they’re going.

I know, I just feel more comfortable taking a lane where a car can pass in a lane to my left, than doing the “take the single lane” thing. I mean thats what I did this morning (there were several cyclists on Water, maybe you passed me? (red short sleeve shirt, silver hybrid bike, orange and black backpack) Its just made the route an iota less desirable to me.

[creadinger]

@lordofthemark 84764 wrote:

I know, I just feel more comfortable taking a lane where a car can pass in a lane to my left, than doing the “take the single lane” thing. I mean thats what I did this morning (there were several cyclists on Water, maybe you passed me? (red short sleeve shirt, silver hybrid bike, orange and black backpack) Its just made the route an iota less desirable to me.

I’m trying to think if I saw anyone this morning. It was pretty quiet today at 6:50/7am, so I doubt I passed you. I usually see a few people in the fishmarket area though.

One of the worst parts of my commute are when I see a few friendly looking cyclists in the area of Nats Park, and then watch them all turn off leaving only me to head over the Douglass bridge.

[lordofthemark]

@creadinger 84767 wrote:

I’m trying to think if I saw anyone this morning. It was pretty quiet today at 6:50/7am, so I doubt I passed you. I usually see a few people in the fishmarket area though.

One of the worst parts of my commute are when I see a few friendly looking cyclists in the area of Nats Park, and then watch them all turn off leaving only me to head over the Douglass bridge.

I rode by later than that, so no, you didn’t see me.

[Steve]

Updates from this morning (Heading from the Fish Market, due south):

1. From the Fish Market to 9th is now just two lanes, with a fence blocking what were previously the other two lanes. No impact, just a little less room.

2. From 9th to 7th was CLOSED to traffic. The closures signs were easy to ride around, so I did so. It was about 0615, so very quiet. I’ll be interested to see if there is enforcement ever, especially in the afternoon. They didn’t try to close the sidewalk at all, and so they’re not preventing people from walking thru that area. I’m hoping they treat it the same way Ohio Dr. is during the Cherry Blossoms, where they let peds and bikes thru with no problem, but not cars.

3. From 9th St. to the Police Station is open as normal.

[creadinger]

@Steve 85081 wrote:

Updates from this morning (Heading from the Fish Market, due south):

1. From the Fish Market to 9th is now just two lanes, with a fence blocking what were previously the other two lanes. No impact, just a little less room.

2. From 9th to 7th was CLOSED to traffic. The closures signs were easy to ride around, so I did so. It was about 0615, so very quiet. I’ll be interested to see if there is enforcement ever, especially in the afternoon. They didn’t try to close the sidewalk at all, and so they’re not preventing people from walking thru that area. I’m hoping they treat it the same way Ohio Dr. is during the Cherry Blossoms, where they let peds and bikes thru with no problem, but not cars.

3. From 9th St. to the Police Station is open as normal.

Yeah, I saw that too this morning. They even have the lines painted on the road, so this looks like it will be a long-term closure. Hopefully like you said, it will be open to peds/bikes for a while before they end up closing it all completely.

Update: Riding through the closed section today, I saw a few large, deep holes had been cut through the road. The workers had parked their vehicles over top of them so that people wouldn’t fall in them though. Hopefully with the closure if it actually does become dangerous to ride/walk through there, they’ll do a better job closing the area. Use Fencing or something. Are there regulations for things like that?

[lordofthemark]

I rode through all the closed sections – it works like an impromptu cycle track, at least for now.

[creadinger]

@creadinger 85115 wrote:

Hopefully with the closure if it actually does become dangerous to ride/walk through there, they’ll do a better job closing the area. Use Fencing or something. Are there regulations for things like that?

Well, I sort of asked for it. Yesterday evening the closed sections were blocked by 10ft. fences forcing everyone onto Maine Ave, or the sidewalk along Maine Ave. I think I’ll modify my commute a little bit now to smooth things out. I really don’t like riding on sidewalks unless I absolutely have to.

[PotomacCyclist]

I rode over there for the first time in a month. (It’s not on my usual commuting route.) I don’t envy anyone who has to ride through there over the next couple years or so. If it weren’t for underground utility lines, I wonder if it wouldn’t be quicker to evacuate everyone from that area for a day and dynamite the road and the old buildings. I know, this would never be permitted. But it would be really nice to see the demolition process proceed much more quickly.

[lordofthemark]

@creadinger 86087 wrote:

Well, I sort of asked for it. Yesterday evening the closed sections were blocked by 10ft. fences forcing everyone onto Maine Ave, or the sidewalk along Maine Ave. I think I’ll modify my commute a little bit now to smooth things out. I really don’t like riding on sidewalks unless I absolutely have to.

Shoot.

[Mikey]

When life gives you lemons do a Hains Point Loop!

If you are coming up water street from the Titanic stature, the road closure at 7th puts you out onto Maine ave. Luckily it puts you on Maine while the traffic on Maine is stopped at the light. This should give you just enough time to get past the parked cars and into the right most lane by 9th, before the traffic comes screeming down Maine behind you. Jump over to the curb at 9th and head up the path behind the bushes up to the L’enfant premenade, and the case bridge. The case bridge plops you down on Ohio drive from which you can cross over the median and go left to get back to East Basin Drive, or you can continue to the right the long way I predict many HP laps from me this summer, while water street is closed.

[lordofthemark]

@Mikey 86166 wrote:

When life gives you lemons do a Hains Point Loop!

If you are coming up water street from the Titanic stature, the road closure at 7th puts you out onto Maine ave. Luckily it puts you on Maine while the traffic on Maine is stopped at the light. This should give you just enough time to get past the parked cars and into the right most lane by 9th, before the traffic comes screeming down Maine behind you. Jump over to the curb at 9th and head up the path behind the bushes up to the L’enfant premenade, and the case bridge. The case bridge plops you down on Ohio drive from which you can cross over the median and go left to get back to East Basin Drive, or you can continue to the right the long way I predict many HP laps from me this summer, while water street is closed.

Hmm. Doesn’t sound appetizing. I come from the Eye Street bike lane. I will try the G Street to Bannekar park route instead I think. Haven’t been to Banneker Park in ages, and in Google street view it does NOT look like there is an easy and safe way to get from G Street into the park. Any ideas?

[Kolohe]

@lordofthemark 86168 wrote:

Hmm. Doesn’t sound appetizing. I come from the Eye Street bike lane. I will try the G Street to Bannekar park route instead I think. Haven’t been to Banneker Park in ages, and in Google street view it does NOT look like there is an easy and safe way to get from G Street into the park. Any ideas?

You can dip down to Maine on the east side (of 9th) sidewalk, cross at the intersection (watch for right turning cars from 9th onto Maine that will block the x-walk) then up the (paved) path up to the circle.

(edit for redundancy and lack of reading)

[consularrider]

I’m glad this update came today since I’m about to ride over to RFK for tonight’s Ride of Silence (assuming the predicted thunderstorms don’t cause its cancelation). Too bad because I like riding down Water and along to P and over the trails. Maybe I’ll go that way anyway.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Ride of Silence? I like the sound of that .

[Steve]

@creadinger 86087 wrote:

Well, I sort of asked for it. Yesterday evening the closed sections were blocked by 10ft. fences forcing everyone onto Maine Ave, or the sidewalk along Maine Ave. I think I’ll modify my commute a little bit now to smooth things out. I really don’t like riding on sidewalks unless I absolutely have to.

I come from P, and I think I’ll just start taking 4th up to I to 7th to Maine to 9th or the Case Bridge, just depending on my mood. The only thing I hate about this is it always seems to take a while and be a cluster when crossing M on 4th. I guess there’s not much you can do about it.

[Author]

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