DC Streetcar H Street Benning Road construction pictures

[Sand Box John]

Took theses pictures on the morning of 09 15 2013 prior to the pictures I took in Virginia of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.

Pictures at picasaweb.google.com/cambronj H St and Benning Rd 09 15 2013

[JDC]

John - in the schematic image, what is "Starburst"? Is that a street I don't know about?

[Sand Box John]

"JDC"
John - in the schematic image, what is "Starburst"? Is that a street I don't know about?

Starburst is derived from the appearance of the streets and avenues that radiating from the intersection as seen on a map. The following streets and avenues at the intersection are, H Street, Florida Avenue, Bladensburg Road, Maryland Avenue, Benning Road and 15th Street NE. The Starburst Plaza shopping center is in the wedge between Maryland Avenue and Benning Road on the east side of the intersection. As far As I can recall this is the only place in DC where a combination of streets and Avenues converge at an intersections in the place of a traffic circle.

[dcmike]

As always, good stuff. Thanks John.

I was walking down H St NE myself last week and I couldn't help but notice there were several parked cars encroaching on what will be the dynamic envelope of the streetcars. I hope DDOT is planning on some sort of public education campaign to make sure parked cars don't block the ROW. In my opinion they should begin warning or ticketing inappropriately parked cars very soon to raise awareness. I wonder if DDOT will have a city tow truck on H St at all times to move illegally parked cars?

[Sand Box John]

"dcmike"
As always, good stuff. Thanks John.

Thank You !

I was walking down H St NE myself last week and I couldn't help but notice there were several parked cars encroaching on what will be the dynamic envelope of the streetcars. I hope DDOT is planning on some sort of public education campaign to make sure parked cars don't block the ROW. In my opinion they should begin warning or ticketing inappropriately parked cars very soon to raise awareness. I wonder if DDOT will have a city tow truck on H St at all times to move illegally parked cars?

Such a campaign will be pretty simple to explain, If your car is encroaching over the concrete the tracks are embedded in you parked illegally.

[Robert Paniagua]

Nice photos! Hopefully the project will be done in a few years although thisa will be identical to MBTA's Green Line's B, C & E branches, also run on a middle of the street.

[dcmike]

Looks like DDOT has started an informational blitz, placing flyers on parked cars on H St NE. Enforcement looks set to begin next month.

https://twitter.com/adamchealy/status/4 ... 5193119744" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JDC]

The streetcar is on the street, as of last evening. I bet we will begin to see tons of photos on social media in the coming days/weeks. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tra ... z5#photo=1

[Sand Box John]

H Street Benning Road Streetcar line pictures 01 19 2014

Pictures at picasaweb.google.com/cambronj H St and Benning Road 01 19 2014

[gokeefe]

The New York Times today had an excellent article discussing the Streetcar revival in Washington, D.C. and its importance to retail commerce.

WASHINGTON — The streetcars stopped running in 1949, replaced by buses. In the wake of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the 1968 riots devastated the commercial corridor. Only in recent years has revitalization occurred and gentrification taken hold. This summer, if all goes as planned, the return of streetcars after 65 years will be another step forward for the former H Street NE shopping district in the nation’s capital. The return of the trolleys is being hailed by city officials, businesses and developers as a new generator of economic wealth that will more than pay for the first of eight planned and heavily subsidized streetcar lines, eventually extending for 37 miles throughout the District of Columbia. District planners are projecting as much as $8 billion in new investment within 10 years of the lines’ completion. “What light rail does for a retail corridor is it’s really a big multiplier,” says developer Jim Abdo, whose conversion of a late-19th-century building that was once a convent and then the former Capital Children’s Museum into high-end condos a few years ago was an early catalyst for much of what has happened since.

[Sand Box John]

Not so excellent. Lost me after the first sentences.

The streetcars stopped running in 1949, replaced by buses.

DC transit stopped running streetcars in 1962. Eugene Meyrapril failed to do some research before writing his column.

Streetcars in Washington, D.C.

[gokeefe]

I noticed the date and wondered why he had said 1949. I knew better myself and was curious. Perhaps this was a reference to the H Street corridor itself?

[Sand Box John]

"gokeefe"
I noticed the date and wondered why he had said 1949. I knew better myself and was curious. Perhaps this was a reference to the H Street corridor itself?

The wikipedia.org article quotes dates of the various conduit line shutdowns. The earliest being 09 07 1958 the last happening on 01 28 1962.

[Sand Box John]

"gokeefe"
I noticed the date and wondered why he had said 1949. I knew better myself and was curious. Perhaps this was a reference to the H Street corridor itself?

Seems I spoke to fast and ended up sticking my foot in my mouth. From the same Wikipedia article:

"Benning Car House, the red brick building at the northeast [sic] corner of Benning Road & Kenilworth Avenue on the grounds of the Benning Road PEPCO plant, was built in 1941 and went out of service with the conversion of this carline to buses on May 1, 1949. The building has been structurally modified and still stands."

[JDC]

Future streetcar progress is in doubt, after the DC Counsel decided to implement lower taxes: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc- ... story.html