(Washington, DC) The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced the start of land acquisition and preliminary design work for the South Capitol Street Project, which includes replacement of the current Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge.

“We are excited to continue advancing this important project,” said Ronaldo “Nick” Nicholson, DDOT Chief Engineer. “Doing these initial activities, as we await the Record of Decision, allows us to keep building momentum and moving the project from concept toward reality.”

While the Record of Decision (ROD) is still pending, the Federal Highway Administration signed the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) following the requisite 30-day public comment period that ended in May.

Once constructed, the project will:

• Improve safety by improving the design of the corridor and replacing a bridge that has outlived its useful life.
• Improve multimodal mobility by providing missing roadway connections and improving facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists, such as
  • Wider sidewalks, trails, and curbside lanes
  • Street trees, street lights, bike racks
  • Wide multi-use paths on the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
  • Connections to the Riverwalk and street network
• Improve accessibility by removing grade separations and intersections that inhibit people from reaching activity centers.
• Support economic development that will add thousands of jobs and create new residential neighborhoods that will rely on these and related transportation improvements.

More specific information about the South Capitol Street Project is available at www.southcapitoleis.com .