A tunnel for bikes in Brookland was once a possibility. Is the idea totally dead?
When you ride the Metropolitan Branch Trail into Brookland, it merges with 8th Street NE until it hits Monroe Street, where people on bike have to line up in traffic and wait to use the crosswalk. While DDOT once decided against building a tunnel under Monroe that would keep bikes and cars separate, the idea could come back to life.
The current configuration of the MBT when it hits Monroe Street. Base image from Google Maps.
DDOT’s 2005 Metropolitan Branch Trail Concept Plan included two possible options for crossing Monroe Street, both of which proposed a path that ran along the railroad tracks between Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue.
The first, Option A1, would take the path through a tunnel under Monroe and then on a path across a wooded lot to the south, which would lead to a mid-block crossing at 8th Street.
A rendering of the potential Monroe Street tunnel. Image from DDOT.
The second, Option A2, would have the path follow Monroe west to its intersection with 8th Street and send riders across at grade rather than using a tunnel. DDOT settled on this option.
Trail options from the Metropolitan Branch Trail Concept Plan. Image from DDOT.
A tunnel could be in the cards after all
In the ten years since the MBT plan came out, the path between Michigan and Monroe went in as part of the Arts Walk and Monroe Street Market and the wooded lot south of Monroe has become the Edgewood Arts Center.
DDOT has announced plans to replace/rehabilitate the Monroe Street Bridge in FY2020, which could yield a chance to build a tunnel (which would make for a better trail).
While DDOT staff is concerned that there isn’t room for the trail anymore because of the Arts Center, I believe there is.
The trail could reach the railroad tracks by going east off of 8th Street through the gravel parking lot that runs along the Arts Center’s retaining wall.
The Arts Center, from 8th Street. The railroad tracks are just beyond the trees. Image from Google Streetview.
There’s a “green” strip of trees, about 27 feet wide, that sits between the Arts Center and the railroad track fence. That space could be used to have trail run like this:
Image from Google Maps.
Property ownership and resident resistance might very well be issues, but the space itself should not be. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to build this facility, and we shouldn’t dismiss the opportunity lightly.