DDOT, Bloomingdale Court NW and alley restoration

From: ravindra.ganvir@dc.gov
To: Toni Codinas and Austin Pearl
CC:  a bunch of Email addresses
Subject: RE: Alley restoration
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:27:58 +0000

Dear Bloomingdale Court NW Stakeholders

      

DDOT would like to acknowledge the on-going community concerns regarding the various surface treatments in Bloomingdale Court NW. We want to take this opportunity to assure the community that we are working with DC Water.  DDOT will move forward on plans to totally re-brick the alley shown in RED in Spring 2015. 

  

Please note that the North South alley, shown in BLUE cannot be completely restored in brick until after DC Water completes the First Street Tunnel (FST) Project. This is due to the need to remove the temporary utility line currently installed underneath a portion of the alley.  Once the FST project is finally completed in the spring of 2016, DDOT/DC Water will install brick pavers for all disturbed areas.

Regards. 

Ravi

...and see this subsequent reply:

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 17:11:32 -0500
Subject: Re: Alley restoration
From:  Toni Codinas
To: ravindra.ganvir@dc.gov
 

Dear Mr. Ganvir,

 

I really appreciate your prompt response to my earlier email and the detailed information you supplied. I am particularly glad to have your word and DDOT's commitment to re-brick the north, east and south segments of Bloomingdale Ct. in spring of 2015. Thank you for stating it this clearly.

       

Nevertheless, I remain puzzled by the contradictory information that neighbors are receiving about what will happen to the temporary utility lines. So far, the latest official plan from the First Street Tunnel project that has been presented to the community contemplates the utility lines to be "abandoned in place" and not removed at the end of the project. In an email to this same email chain, John Lisle from DC Water stated that they were working with DDOT to determine what to finally do with the temporary utilities. 

   

Should I interpret from your email, Mr Ganvir, that a final decision has been made? Is this decision to remove the temporary utility line at the end of the project all along the west side alley of First Street, from McMillan all the way to Thomas St? Does this mean that all the "work that these able craftsmen have completed" (quote from Mr. Lindberg) re-bricking more than a mile of alley surface will go to waste?

      

Once again, this demonstrates the lack of coordination and a "designing while doing"/improvising mentality from DC Water and DDOT in regard to the First Street Tunnel project. This attitude from the responsible parties in this project is extremely scary given the magnitude and complexity of a project that is literally happening around and underneath our homes.

  

This is the reason why, once again, I plead to DC Water, DDOT, elected officials and all the other parties involved in this project, to strengthen the coordination, communication and planning before something goes really wrong with this huge infrastructure project. If DC Water and DDOT can not have a simple plan to restore an alley, it is unlikely that they will be prepared to respond to the much more challenging situations that can potentially emerge from building an enormous tunnel underneath an entire neighborhood.

 

I look forward to learning more about coordination and planning across agencies in regards of the First Street Tunnel in the next Tunnel Forum.

 

Sincerely,

Toni Codinas