United States Senate
Committee on
Environment and Public Works
Kennedy Center
Access
June 4, 2002 B 9:00 am
Statement of Dan
Tangherlini, Director
Good morning Chairman Jeffords and members of the Committee on Environment
and Public Works. Thank you for this
opportunity to speak before the Committee.
My name is Dan Tangherlini and I am Acting Director of the Department of
Transportation, District of Columbia Government.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
is a major national tourist attraction and the Washington Region’s premiere
entertainment venue. In the year 2000,
the U.S. Department of Transportation published the Kennedy Center Access Study
that was authorized by Congress in 1998.
The District Department of Transportation participated in this Study and
is assisting in the subsequent environmental analysis currently underway.
The District Department of Transportation
recognizes the Kennedy Center’s severe transportation access constraints. The 2000 Study documents the problems
including:
- The
series of freeways and parkways surrounding the Center which serve to isolate
it from both District neighborhoods and the National Mall;
- Evening
commuter traffic congestion on the Rock Creek and Potomac Freeway and ramps to
the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge which interferes with performance-bound traffic
to the Center;
- An
absence of pedestrian and bicycle facilities offering safe and direct routes to
the Center; and
- Inadequate
access to the facility by public transit.
The study notes that the Foggy Bottom Metrorail Station, the Metrorail
Station closest to the Kennedy Center, is one-half mile away.
The centerpiece of the proposed transportation
access improvements would be the creation of a plaza, which would carry E
Street NW directly into the Kennedy Center.
This plaza would be created by constructing a deck over the Potomac
Freeway. The plaza could include a
public square and two building sites on either side of the extended E Street
NW.
The District Department of Transportation strongly
supports transportation improvements, which will eliminate the Kennedy Center’s
physical isolation and connect the Center with the Foggy Bottom neighborhood
and the Monumental Core of the City. We
also support the aesthetic vision of restoring the L’Enfant Plan street grid
and economic opportunities that may be created by the project.
We respectfully suggest that the Federal government
should fund this project through a special appropriation which would not impact
the District’s annual allocation of Federal Aid, and that the Federal Highway
Administration should construct the improvements.
The Center’s initial design concept provided
pedestrian access to the Potomac River and vehicular access from the Rock Creek
and Potomac Parkway, yet, due to funding constraints, the Kennedy Center was
built in its isolated environment. The
level of improvements recommended by the study to correct the original access
deficiencies is extensive. The Access
Study places the cost of improvements at $269 million. By contrast, the District Department of
Transportation spent approximately $255 million in construction activity in
fiscal year 2001. Our entire annual
apportionment and allocation for the current fiscal year is $126 million.
The District Department of Transportation cautions
that the proposed improvements should not be considered independently of the
District of Columbia’s transportation network.
The District is currently engaged in a study to develop solutions to the
structural and operation constrains of the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge.
The Kennedy Center access project should be closely coordinated with the bridge
study.
In turn, both of these projects must be considered
within a larger context of land use and transportation planning in the West
End. To adequately address
transportation problems in the area, including the Kennedy Center, a
comprehensive approach should include a corridor encompassing the Whitehurst
Freeway, Lower K Street, and the Roosevelt Bridge.
In its discussion of the Kennedy Center in the
Legacy Plan, the National Capital Planning Commission states that a successful
transportation plan must extend beyond physical improvements and that
behavioral changes must also occur. It explains that employers must develop
traffic management programs to reduce congestion and travel times.
A comprehensive
transportation planning approach to solutions will truly weave access to the
Kennedy Center into the transportation fabric of the District of Columbia.
Thank you again for the opportunity to provide this testimony.