Constructing a podium for the largest air rights project to date in Washington, D.C., is one thing. Doing it in a confined work area over an active highway is something else entirely. Topping that, the project includes moving Washington’s oldest synagogue—twice.
The nearly 1,100-ft-long and 120-ft-wide concrete deck is just off Massachusetts Avenue and covers open-cut portions of Interstate 395. Completed in October, the deck spans a six-lane trench dividing Capitol Hill from the city’s East End that was built in the 1960s for a full inner loop highway system, halted because it would have bisected residential neighborhoods. The project also extends an existing on-ramp tunnel by 1,000 ft so it can more efficiently filter traffic to the freeways underneath the platform and improve pedestrian safety above it.