WASHINGTON — A proposal to shut down a portion of Interstate 395 for more than a year is now officially dead, after Mayor Vince Gray told the D.C. Department of Transportation that it was a non-starter.
“The mayor has made a statement and it’s now over. It would be a big task anyway to close a freeway with 90,000 vehicles on it each day,” says DDOT Director Matthew Brown.
Last week, it was revealed that Brown wrote a letter to the Federal Highway Administration to determine what would be necessary to shut down the freeway for up to 18 months. Developer Property Group Partners argued that the closure would’ve cut construction time for part of the Capitol Crossing project in half. Capitol Crossing is a 2.2 million-square-foot mixed-use building that would hang over I-395 in the District.
“They asked us if it would be a possibility. I wrote to the Federal Highway Administration asking for the process in order to understand what might be required,” says Brown.
“The goals are to get the project done as safely as possible and as quickly as possible. It looks like the closure of the 3rd Street ramp may help us accomplish some of those goals. I sent a similar letter asking about what the process would be, not to ask them to close the ramp,” he adds.
Brown has not received a response from FHWA on that letter. Regardless of the response, it could be awhile before any option affects commuters in the region.
Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser also made it clear she did not support shutting down the interstate.
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