Washington D.C.
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| Rendering of future DC United Stadium Photo Credit: DC United |
DC United Stadium: DC United reached a tentative deal with the city to construct a new $300 million, 20,000 seat stadium in SW DC. The move is expected to
New Walmart Stores: The national retail behemoth opened two "urban-style" stores in NW Washington DC this month after a summer of controversy involving a new minimum wage bill that threatened to terminate the projects altogether. Three more stores are planned for the city, including one that is already under construction.
Bridges Complete: The 11th Street Bridges carrying I-695 and MLK Jr. Ave SE across the Anacostia River and the Wilson Bridge carrying the Beltway (I-95/I-495) across the Potomac River were officially completed this year. The bridges were largely complete at the beginning of the year, but minor construction work remained to be finished.
New Transportation Funding: Both Maryland and Northern Virginia received a major boost in funding for new transportation projects and system maintenance thanks to increases in gas and sales taxes respectively.
City Center DC: The nearly $950 million, 5- block development began to deliver this month with apartments becoming available for lease. The second phase of the development, one of the largest in the nation, is expected to break ground next year and include a luxury hotel.
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| DC Streetcar undergoing testing on H Street Photo Credit: BeyondDC via Flickr |
Metro Silver Line and DC Streetcar: The delayed first phase of the Metro Silver Line to Tysons Corner and H-Street Line of the DC Streetcar are both projected to open at some point next year. Meanwhile the Purple Line light rail line has been steadily progressing to its expected 2015 construction start.
Baltimore
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| MARC Train arriving Odenton Station on the Penn Line Photo Credit: Bossi via Flickr |
Weekend MARC Service: Weekend service began for the first time on the busy Penn Line of the MTA's MARC commuter rail system. The long-awaited service provides cheap (Amtrak is available as a more expensive option) weekend access to Baltimore, Washington D.C., and BWI Airport along the high-speed Northeast Corridor.
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| New Exelon Regional Headquarters in the Harbor Point Development Photo Credit: Beatty Development |
Exelon HQ/Harbor Point Development: Groundbreaking is scheduled to commence next month on a new 23-story regional headquarters building for Exelon will be the key tenant of the $1.8 billion Harbor Point development. Harbor Point is already home to a Morgan Stanley facility, and will also include other office buildings, residential towers, parks, retail and a hotel.
New York
2013
Rough Year on the Rails: 2013 saw two serious incidents on the Metro-North commuter rail system, including one that killed 4 people. The first event in Fairfield, CT was a two train collision which occurred after one of the trains derailed and landed onto the opposite track in the path of an oncoming train resulting in 73 injuries. The second incident involved a single train on the Hudson Line in Bronx that derailed while going too fast around a curve, resulting in 4 deaths and 63 injuries.
2014
Super Bowl XLIX: New York (well, actually New Jersey) will play host to the NFL Championship next year, the most watched American television broadcast of the year.
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| One World Trade Center in July 2013 Photo Credit: Joe Mabel via Flickr |
7 Subway Extension: The 1.6 mile, two-station 7 Subway Extension is set to open in June of 2014. The line will extend past its current terminus in Times Square to a new station at 10th Ave and new terminus 34th St-11th Ave. The line will directly serve the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and is also intended to spur redevelopment around MTA's West Side Yard and Hell's Kitchen.
Philadelphia
2013
Center City Building Collapse: The biggest news story in Philadelphia in 2013, was unfortunately a somber one. In June a building collapse in Center City killed 6 people when a wall from the four-story building fell on the roof of an adjacent thrift shop.
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| SLS International Photo Credit: KPF |
New Hotel Construction: A number of hotel projects are scheduled to break ground in the city in 2014. One project will bring two hotels-- a "W" and a "Element"--to a lot on 15th and Chestnut, while another will comprise of a 47-story tower with residential condo units and hotel rooms (the tallest such building in Philadelphia).
Mid-Atlantic Trends
There were a number of trends in the realm of transportation, infrastructure projects, and urban development that were visible across the Mid-Atlantic in 2013 which will likely continue into 2014.
Major Progress on New Mass Transit Lines: In addition to the aforementioned Silver Line subway/heavy rail and DC Streetcar in the Washington D.C. Area, as well as the 7 Subway Extension in New York which will all open in 2014, there are a number of other projects steadily progressing towards opening/groundbreaking. In Maryland, the Purple Line light rail, which traverses the state's inner DC suburbs, and the Red Line light rail, an east-west line through Baltimore, both got significant support from the state, have nearly complete final designs, and should receive final approval for federal funds next year. In New York City, construction continues on the Second Ave Subway and the East Side Access project bringing LIRR commuter trains into Grand Central Terminal.
Troubled Transit Hubs to Open: The over-budget, longer overdue Fulton Center (originally the Fulton Street Transit Center) in New York City and the Silver Spring Transit Center (SSTC) in Silver Spring, MD are both set to finally open in 2014. Construction costs of both facilities ballooned way beyond initial outlays--from $750 million to $1.4 billion for the Fulton Center and $36 million to $120 million for the SSTC--and numerous delays have plagued both projects which were both supposed to open in 2010. The Fulton Center will provide an important connection between 11 NYCTA Subway services and the SSTC will connect the MARC Brunswick Line, Metro Red Line, MTA Commuter Bus routes, intercity buses, and nearly 50 RideOn and Metrobus routes.
Warming to PPP's: Public-Private Partnerships (PPP's) have historically been disregarded by leaders in the heavily Democratic states of the Mid-Atlantic for infrastructure construction/operation, but in a time of skyrocketing construction and maintenance costs, they're being given more consideration. Both the Purple Line in Maryland and Goethals Bridge in New York are planned to be built through the use of PPP's, the first such projects of their kind in the Northeast.
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