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[Archived] Alexandria Will Sign Agreement to Protect City's Interests During Design Phase of Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date:
Wednesday, December 10, 1997
Contact:
Mayor Kerry J. Donley, (703) 838-4500; Philip G. Sunderland, City Attorney, (703) 838-4433; Tom Brannan, Assistant City Manager, (703) 838-4300
Alexandria Will Sign Agreement to Protect City's Interests During Design Phase of Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project
The Alexandria City Council has authorized Mayor Kerry J. Donley to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that is intended to mitigate impacts of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project on the City's extensive historic and archaeological resources.
By signing the MOA, the City ensures that it will be a direct player in the actual design of the bridge project, through participation in the MOA's Design Review Working Group.
"If the City is to have a meaningful voice in protecting the Alexandria Historic District and the many other historic resources affected by this project, then we need to be at the table," said Mayor Donley. "Moreover, under the terms of the agreement, if the City were not to sign, it would be shut out of the entire MOA process. In signing this agreement, the City has expressly reserved all of its rights to pursue other avenues of redress," said the Mayor. "No one should infer from the City's signing of the MOA that Alexandria is prepared to support a 12-lane Bridge whose impacts will be most harshly felt in our City," said the Mayor.
The MOA's Design Review Working Group consists of representatives of the City of Alexandria, Prince George's County, Md., the National Park Service, the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Historic Preservation Officers from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. It is charged with the responsibility to review the design plans for the Bridge project as they are developed to ensure that the project is designed and engineered in a manner that maximally mitigates its impact on the Alexandria Historic District, Jones Point Park, and other historical, archaeological and cultural resources in the City.
The Design Review Working Group. The Working Group is expected to play a critical role in a large number of design decisions that will affect Alexandria residents, including:
the design of the bridge structure as it passes through Jones Point Park and over the Potomac River;
the design of the approaches to the bridge as they pass through Alexandria;
the design efforts, which are required by the Federal Highway Administration's Record of Decision, to minimize the width of the bridge structure and the Alexandria approaches to the bridge;
the design efforts, which are also required by the Record of Decision, to minimize the footprint of the U.S. Route 1 interchange;
the further design efforts, required by the Record of Decision, to evaluate the feasibility of eliminating the Church Street access ramp from the project;
the overall design, and the individual design features, of the urban deck that the Record of Decision requires be constructed over the Alexandria approaches to the bridge in the vicinity of Washington Street;
the preservation of historic and archaeological resources located within Jones Point Park, and the design and implementation of the many mitigation measures that the Record of Decision requires to be undertaken in the Park;
the efforts to safeguard and preserve the integrity of Freedman's Cemetery; and
the nature and location of noise barriers.
"These and other issues are simply too important to the citizens of Alexandria, and to the future of Alexandria itself, for the City not to be fully represented when they are being decided. Alexandria will be an active participant in the deliberations of the Working Group, and will aggressively pursue the steps we believe to be needed to minimize the adverse effects this project poses for the City," said the Mayor.
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