Project Update – 11th Street Corridor
Drivers in our Nation’s Capital are already receiving benefits from the on-going 11th Street Corridor project as new freeway ramps and bridges are completed.
D.C. area drivers have waited decades for full connectivity between I-295 and I-695 in the Anacostia area, near landmarks such as the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Nationals stadium. In 2010, the Skanska/Facchina/JMT Design-Build Team began construction of the 11th Street Corridor bridges, DC Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) largest capital improvement project.
DDOT’s primary goals included:
- Better regional connections through the District of Columbia by linking the Anacostia Freeway (DC 295/I-295) and Southeast Freeway (I-695) with new bridges and providing for missing movements in these interchanges.
- An alternate evacuation route and routes for security movements in and out of the nation’s capital.
- Improved local road, pedestrian and bicycle connections which provide users with easier accessibility to DC neighborhoods.
- Provisions for Future DC Street Car System, and
- Replacement of deficient infrastructure.
DC area motorists’ patience is finally being rewarded as new ramps and bridges over the Anacostia River are opened to traffic including:
- Two new bridges carrying interstate traffic across the Anacostia River connecting the Anacostia Freeway to and from the south to the Southeast Freeway.
- A new bridge carrying two-way local traffic across the Anacostia River connecting the Capitol Hill and Anacostia neighborhoods.
- A ramp providing, for the first time ever, direct access both to and from downtown DC at this location.
- Two new ramp connections to and from the Anacostia Freeway to 11th Street and the local street network.
Significant cost savings have been realized by DDOT. The original engineer’s estimate to complete the entire project was $460 million. Due to budget constraints, DDOT undertook a $260 Million Design-Build-to-Budget Stipulated Sum procurement with a challenge of seeing how much of a functional improvement could be built for this sum. Key to this challenge was maximizing construction of key project elements including rehabilitation or replacement of existing bridges and providing interchange connectivity. The Design-Build Team of Skanska/Facchina/JMT was selected as the team that would provide DDOT the best value providing three new bridges over the Anacostia River and building approximately 75% of the ultimate project at a cost savings of $85 million under the engineer’s estimate. Construction of this initial phase is scheduled for completion by mid-2013.
As a result of the Team’s innovative and cost effective design and construction, the Skanska/Facchina/JMT Design-Build team was awarded a $90.73 million contract this year to complete the final design and construction of the total project to provide the full functionality considered in the NEPA documentation. With a total design and construction cost of approximately $351 million, DDOT has saved a total of $109 million from the original engineer’s estimate. Design is underway for the complete project and construction is expected to be complete in July 2015.
As the Lead Designer, JMT is responsible for overseeing all engineering elements including the design of 18 new bridges, three of which are new major continuous steel multi-girder bridge crossings of the Anacostia River and two complex interchanges with the Southeast Freeway and Anacostia Freeway. We have met all project goals by utilizing innovative design to refine the planning document alignments and interchanges, satisfied all environmental commitments, minimized community impacts, maintained traffic, and built public support through extensive public involvement. All this has been accomplished while saving substantial construction costs.
Our design team subconsultants include:
- Athvale, Lystad & Associates
- KLS Engineering
- Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
- McKissack & McKissack
- AECOM
Traffic continues to be maintained in this extremely-congested urban environment through a complex phasing plan that was developed in close coordination between the construction and design teams. Seventy-five percent of the project has been constructed without major interruption to vehicular traffic. The general philosophy of the phasing was to build offline and shift traffic from the existing roadway to the new roadway providing a safer work zone for both the construction workers and the traveling public. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic has been continuously maintained across the Anacostia River throughout the duration of construction.
With four new ramps scheduled to be opened to traffic before the end of 2012, this complex project continues to move swiftly toward completion.
Back to All News