The Alexandria Transportation Commission voted in favor of a modified version of the city’s plan for a redesigned King Street Metro station following a public hearing Wednesday night.
The city’s plan envisioned a new station design at a cost of $6.95 million, combining $4.75 million in grants and $2.2 million from the Alexandria Transportation Improvement Program. The commission voted to add shelters at the Kiss-and-Ride area and dynamic message boards for buses to the city’s preferred plan.
The commission rejected constructing the project in six phases instead of two to minimize the impact to station operations and installing a brick sidewalk on Diagonal Road as opposed to concrete.
The King Street Metro is in the process of undergoing other changes as well. In November, the to King St-Old Town beginning with the June 2012 maps.
Alexandria residents speaking at the hearing criticized various aspects of the project. Poul Hertel of Old Town called the plan an “abject failure” designed for buses, cars and taxis rather than pedestrians.
“From a pedestrian perspective, I think we should be doing better,” Hertel said.
Commissioner Justin Wilson said although the plan was not perfect from a pedestrian perspective, it was an improvement over the current station layout. “We have vastly minimized the amount of which the human is a pinball here,” he said.
A 25-year-old by a van at the King Street Metro in 2010 while crossing the parking lot.
Rosemont resident Katy Cannady called the King Street station the city’s most important gateway and said she was appalled the city had planned to eliminate dynamic message boards for buses from the project.
“This was just a mistake,” she said. “It just needs to go away. We don’t need to be economizing here.”
Alexandria resident Don Bush criticized the commission for not making the latest plans available to the public before the hearing. Bush also said he was concerned where Kiss-and-Ride drivers would park while they waited to pick up transit users. He also criticized the project’s escalating costs.
Abi Lerner, deputy director or the city’s Department of Transportation and Environmental Services, said the commission about the project. “This is not a new concept, and this is something we have had extensive public participation in (during) the last year and a half,” he said.
Lerner said city staff planned to bring the project before City Council on March 27.
More: If first impressions count, then why hasn't there been an effort to persuade Metro to change more than just the name of the Metro Station? A visitor's initial impression is made not when they step outside the metro station but when they step off the metro train Alexandria can do better than what this commission has wrought
This was brought to the Transportation Commission back in January as an $8.5 million project. At that time, I expressed significant concerns about the cost and voted against re-programming the $1.9 million of State Urban Funds to be spent on this project. After the Commission's action, the City Manager rightly made the decision to reassess this project, and sent TES staff back to value engineer the project to reduce the costs. The end result avoided the need to re-program the $1.9 million of State Urban Funds (thus allowing those funds to be used on more important transportation improvements elsewhere in the City), and significantly improves both the form and function of the site. Re-doing the intersection, etc add cost to the proposal--costs that were just not doable in this environment.
This is not a perfect proposal--it's a complicated site, where physical and financial constraints abound. The City, WMATA, DASH, and the community have been working on this effort for the past 6 years. This improves the site.
The Braddock Road Metro Area Plan, approved by Council in 2008, includes the concept of a tunnel under the railroad right of way, to allow for an additional "Mount Vernon Avenue" entrance for the station. The expectation is that this would be a development proffer and would be implemented when the Metro site is developed--hopefully soon.
Still seems a bit pricey but then again it's hard to imagine what exactly the end result will be at this point. I applaud you however for articulately describing the issue and helping our city forward. I'm particularly excited about the potential for a new "Mount Vernon" entrance. I think the area around the King Street section is a mess and while I hope this will make it somewhat better, my hopes are not high. Boyd, while I enjoy a good traffic circle as much as the next person. That might cause more of a headache then it is worth in that spot. I hope this issue will continue to be covered.
Sadly, this plan put forward by the CIty does NOTHING about the lighting situation along the pathway between the Metro and the Duke Street Pedestrian tunnel where a woman was grabbed late at night in April 2010 and sexually assaulted. Right now, it is pitch black dark between the last bus bay and the tunnel. We have brought that to the CIty's attention on numerous occasions but, that request has fallen on deaf ears. The City has also claimed at the various community meetings that the parking lot is under used which is why they are cutting it out under this design. Again, this is a flat-out lie as anyone can see that the lot is packed 95% of the time especially at rush hour. There are also several dozen cars that use the Metro lot to pickup people during the afternoon rush hour and drop off and pickup in the morning rush hour. The City is cutting that down to one lane and to share the lane with taxi cabs. Diagonal Lane is backed up both in the AM and PM rush hour. Does the City really expect this to lessen traffic on Diagonal after redesign? The last question the public should be asking is: Considering that DASH is cutting service, should the City REALLY be expanding the bus bays at King Street? The City should start listening to the public instead of pushing an agenda.