NCPC - ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Washington Union Station Security Upgrades

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA)
Washington Union Station Security Upgrades

The Federal Railroad Administration in conjunction with the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) has submitted security upgrades at Union Station for review at the October Commission meeting. The submission is accompanied by an Environmental Assessment (EA). NCPC is announcing the availability of that EA for public review. Along with the EA, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), completed by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration in July 2008 is available online.

The EA evaluates the potential environmental impacts associated with the installation of physical security barriers on the front and sides of Washington Union Station. It examines various build alternatives and a no build alternative. Under the build alternatives, bollards and hardened elements would be added in front of the station and on its sides. In front of the building’s portico (on the south side) steel bollards are proposed for the center of the aisleway between the first and second traffic lanes – roughly 25 feet from the curb. The curbside taxi lane will continue to operate as it does today. Bollards and other perimeter security elements will be placed along the colonnade.

With the no build alternative, the existing roadways, taxi lanes, sidewalks and landscape features of Columbus Circle and Columbus Plaza would be maintained as they are. Under this alternative, there would be no hardening of the building frontage and no additional levels of protection for the building and its users. Further details of the environmental review are available within the EA.

The EA provides information that NCPC will take into account during its review of the preliminary and final site development plans of the proposed project, scheduled to be heard at the October 2, 2008 Commission meeting. NCPC’s review authority comes under the Planning Act (40 U.S.C. § 8722(b)(1) and (d)).

A printed copy of the EA is also available for onsite review at the National Capital Planning Commission, 401 9th Street, NW, North Lobby, Suite 500, Washington, DC (Monday - Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Please call 202-482-7200).