By the end of 2018, a new bridge will replace the one that currently carries Monroe Street over the train tracks in Brookland. The project will include new sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, and traffic signals, all of which should make the area better for walking.

The proposed Monroe Street Bridge

The Monroe Street Bridge was first built in 1931, and the last time it got a repair and partial reconstruction was in 1974; today, the bridge is definitely showing its age. The bridge deck, it turns out, is cracked and depressed, and there is extensive damage and corrosion to the concrete. The District Department of Transportation started preaparing to rehabilitate the bridge back in 2014, and at a May 12th public meeting, a DDOT representative noted that the condition is such that the bridge superstructure will need to be fully replaced.

Construction will happen in two phases, with the northbound side closed and repaired first, followed by the southbound side. Though the bridge will never be completely closed, DDOT is evaluating a lengthy bicycle detour.

When the project is complete, the mostly concrete bridge will be replaced by a new three-span steel superstructure supported by the rehabilitated piers and abutments.

The walk across the bridge will be a lot more pleasant

The new bridge will benefit pedestrians the most. Sidewalks on Monroe between 7th and 9th, and even across 9th where recent construction has caused some damage, will be repaired. The exposed aggregate sidewalk, a type of sidewalk with exposed stone on the surface, will be replaced with full slabs of concrete.

Image from Google Maps.

The sidewalk on the east side of 8th Street between Monroe and Lawrence, which has also been damaged by construction and which has a sizable gap, will also be repaired and completed. Pepco power lines will go below the bridge, meaning the sidewalk won’t have power line poles in the middle, and there will be better lighting for people walking.

Image from Google Maps.

Alongside the property on the southwest corner of Monroe and 7th, green buffers between the sidewalk and the street that are currently filled with gravel will get some landscaping.

Finally, the chain link fence that protects the railroad tracks below, will be replaced with an aesthetically more appealing— and harder to climb— plastic barrier.

Though the project area includes a section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail where a trail underpass was once proposed, changes to the trail will be minimal.

For people using the the MBT, the main improvement will be the addition of a timed traffic signal where the trail crosses Monroe at 8th Street. As abutments (the pieces that hold up the ends of the bridge) will not be extensively rebuilt, whatever opportunity that might have existed to run the trail beneath Monroe Street, as originally planned, seems gone.