Category Archives: 2nd Street Connector Proposal

2nd Street Connector’s Official Opening On Thursday

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Despite continued questions and controversy, the Mayor’s Office released the following press release:

For Immediate Release Contact: Michael Wallace
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 (804) 646-2772 Michael.Wallace at Richmondgov.com

Mayor to Officially Open New 2nd Street Connector Road

WHO: Mayor Dwight C. Jones
Ellen Robertson, Richmond City Council Vice President, District 6
Parker Agelasto, Richmond City Council, District 5
Carter Reid, Vice President – Administrative Services & Corporate Secretary, Dominion
Bruce Hazelgrove, Vice President – Corporate Resources, NewMarket Corporation
Jack Berry, Executive Director, Venture Richmond

WHAT: Official opening of the new 2nd Street Connector road.

WHEN: Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 3 p.m.

WHERE: New 2nd Street Connector Road
Street extends from 2nd Street to Tredegar Street
Richmond, VA

BACKGROUND:

Mayor Jones, members of Richmond City Council, Dominion, New Market Corporation, and Venture Richmond will officially open the new 2nd Street Connector road. Project represents the first completed project of the 2012 Richmond Riverfront Plan.

Free parking is available in the parking lot off of Tredegar Street just west of the American Civil War Museum parking lot.

# # #

A Cross-Section of the Canal

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During the construction of the new bridge for the 2nd Street Connector, the contractors made a clean cut through the canal. This cut provided a cross-section of the canal.

As shown clearly in this photograph, there is only about a foot of dark top soil above the yellowish clay liner of the south bank of the canal. (photographer placed a 4 foot ruler in the photograph to show the scale.) Bill Trout, who is the former President of the American Canal Society, visited the site, and he took a sample of the clay and demonstrated how the clay was “puddled” with water to form an impervious barrier that kept the water from leaking from the canal.

This is important because Venture Richmond’s proposed plan to slice off 5-6 feet from the top of the south bank of the canal would definitely damage the integrity of the canal by slicing into the important clay liner of the canal.

Richmond Voice Covers Canal Wall Demolition

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Thankfully, the Richmond Voice newspaper is still on the case. You can click here for the pdf of their recent issue, which includes a story about the recent destruction of the historic Kanawha canal wall.

Supposedly, the Police Dept and the Dept of Public Works are investigating the matter, but Oregon Hill residents remain concerned that it will not be fully prosecuted. Perhaps more outside pressure will come to bear.

On the Preservation of Richmond’s Canal

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From email:

To all those interested in the future of Richmond’s historic canal:

The attached letter is from Mr. D.J. Ballinger, president of the international canal organization Inland Waterways International, containing a resolution of support for the preservation and wise use of the remains of the James River & Kanawha Canal in Richmond. Originally known as the James River Canal, it was the first operating canal system with locks in America. It first opened in 1789 and was completed into the Great Basin in 1800. The canal company elected George Washington as its honorary president and gave him a grand tour in 1791. Today, much of the canal is still intact in Richmond.

The resolution was passed at the annual World Canals Conference, held this year in Yangzhou, China, on China’s Grand Canal. For 25 years these conferences have been held annually in America or Europe, and now, for the first time, in the far east. This one was held in conjunction with the Sixth World Canal Cities Expo, which has been held annually in Yangzhou. The Chinese are making the most of their canal heritage. Communities along its length are working together to nominate the Grand Canal as a World Heritage Site, and are using it to create beautiful parks and waterways much beloved by both tourists and those who live there. Efforts like this are going on all over the world.

Richmond rightly prides itself as a River Town and has learned much from other river cities. But Richmond is also a Canal City. The technology and philosophy of canal park development is not the same as river park development. We need to work not only with other river cities, but with other canal cities and canal parks to learn how we can put our historic canal to its best use for our city. The sweep of the canal around Oregon Hill is in danger and needs our help.

Bill Trout

Letters To The Editor

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The Times Dispatch featured this letter about the new 2nd St. connector road, echoing concerns brought up by Oregon Hill residents as well as the local Sierra Club:

Connector road should have sidewalks

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

As I biked home recently and saw the Second Street connector road under construction, I pondered the design, which calls for two narrow travel lanes and a sidewalk on only one side of the road. This road will connect Second Street just north of the Lee Bridge to Tredegar Street and descends at an extremely steep grade.

The lack of an uphill bike lane and sidewalks will increase delays for motorists and compromise safety for everyone. This new road is in the middle of the city and immediately adjacent to Belle Isle, the Canal Walk and the James River Park System — some of the most popular places to walk, run and bike in the city. For even more evidence that a sidewalk on both sides of the street is needed, look no further than Tredegar Street itself, which lacks a sidewalk on the north side and has a worn dirt path there instead. Fixing this is one of the recommendations in the new Riverfront Plan. What about the thousands of pedestrians who descend this hill to attend the Folk Festival?

Dominion employees will probably have the most time to ponder the road design as they wait behind bicyclists traveling uphill at 5 mph, a problem that would have been easily avoided by adding a mere 5-foot bike lane. It is always more expensive to retrofit a road than to build new, so please, Richmond, let’s stop being pennywise and pound foolish.

John Bolecek.
Richmond.

Also, Oregon Hill resident Todd Woodson implored for a change of leadership in the 5th District:

Continue reading →

Somebody Should Be Going To Jail

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The local corporate media is playing all coy about the recent demolishing of the historic canal wall. They keep referring to it as if it was an accident and was bound to happen. (It was not. There were witnesses.)

Not me (and yeah, this is marked as editorial).

I believe somebody, despite knowing the many concerns of our neighborhood and larger Richmond community, thought they could sneakily order and get away with, under the lingering goodwill glow of the folk festival, and before the Riverfront Plan comes up at City Council, the destruction of an important part of Richmond’s history (built with slave labor, designed with the help of no one less than George Washington). And, I guess they figured this sort of thing has been done before in Richmond, so they did think they could get away with it.

As others have pointed out, the work crew did not even bother to put up erosion controls as required by the Chesapeake Bay Act, before beginning this work that included a deep bulldozer rut down the side of the canal.

Imagine if a regular citizen tried something so arrogant, so pernicious. This was not like a kid spray painting a monument, this was someone destroying a large swathe of historic artifact. I don’t care how big or small of a figure the guilty party or guilty parties are, or which corporations they are leaders of, somebody should be going to jail.

Corporate accountability should mean something and not just political buzzwords. Speaking of which, where’s our Councilperson on this? After all, he was very recently quoted- “We need a council to do the people’s business of being watchdogs over the public purse, to be watchdogs over waste, fraud and abuse, to be watchdogs over massive mismanagement,” Jewell says. Really, Marty, then why aren’t you publicly calling for a criminal investigation?

OHNA Press Release and Corrected Press Release Over Demolished History

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Following the destruction of the historic canal wall, the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) put forth the following press release. Keep in mind for legal purposes, only the original issuers of press releases are responsible for verifying the accuracy of their content. Oregonhill.net, and its principals, officers and employees disclaim any liability whatsoever for inaccuracies found in the content of the press releases posted on or through the oregonhill.net website.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Venture Richmond damages a portion of the historic James River and Kanawha Canal.

RICHMOND, VA: On Tuesday, Venture Richmond proceeded to damage a portion of the historic James River and Kanawha canal bank and to destroy a century-old brick structural component of the canal.

The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) has called for the preservation of the 200 year old canal, built largely with slave labor when George Washington was the President of the canal society. The Oregon Hill neighborhood has many connections to the canal, including 601 Spring St, the former home of Samuel P. Parsons, the Canal Superintendent in 1840.

Jennifer Hancock, OHNA President, said, “We are seeing Richmond history disappear before our eyes.”

OHNA finds it disturbing that it is a public/private partnership that is responsible for the destruction. According to the Times Dispatch, Venture Richmond gets a large amount of public funding: $1.68 million from a special city tax on downtown property owners, in addition to $700,000 in public money for the Clean and Safe program.

Venture Richmond’s proposed amphitheater has ample sight lines without damaging the canal.

The Oregon Hill neighborhood has long sought the restoration of the canal to allow boats to travel west to Maymont. But the canal would not hold adequate water to float a boat to Maymont if the banks of the canal are lowered. According to archaeologist Lyle Browning, if the height of the canal bank is lowered below 82 feet above sea level, its current level, the canal will not hold enough water to allow boats to make the trip to Maymont in the future. “Lowering the height of the canal towpath without adequate archaeological investigation of the towpath will irreparably damage a nationally important resource.”

After the media started to pick the story up, Venture Richmond declared they had nothing to do with the tearing down of the canal wall. The Times Dispatch reported that Venture Richmond Executive Director Jack Berry called (the press release)”bogus” and “libelous.”

In response, OHNA released this correction this morning:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OHNA calls for investigation into the destruction of canal property

Richmond, VA: The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) acknowledges to Venture Richmond that OHNA made an incorrect assumption that Venture Richmond would be aware of bulldozers and construction crews operating on their own property, and therefore made the erroneous statement that Venture Richmond was responsible for the recent damage to the historic wall and canal.

According to an article that appeared in the October 20, 2012 edition of the Richmond Times Dispatch, “William Roberts, a project manager for J.A. Liesfeld, a Rockville-based contractor, acknowledged the firm was hired by NewMarket Corp. to tear down the wall but would not discuss the project.”

The Richmond Times Dispatch, in October 2011, reported that NewMarket destroyed another large section of the pre-Civil War Tredegar wall, only obtaining the required permit after the fact. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/oct/07/tdmet01-richmond-officials-say-newmarket-work-was–ar-1365435/

Last Tuesday, 150 feet of brick wall constructed before the Civil War was demolished by a construction crew operating on Venture Richmond property.

“We request an investigation of whatever entity was responsible for the destruction of this historic property,” said Jennifer Hancock, OHNA President. “Whoever demolished this wall should be required to rebuild the wall.”

The James River and Kanawha Canal was built over 200 years ago largely with slave labor when George Washington was president of the canal society. The Oregon Hill neighborhood has many connections with the rich history of the canal.

Some facts worth noting: NewMarket is listed as a major contributor to Venture Richmond. Two NewMarket executives sit on the Venture Richmond Board, including NewMarket’s CEO Gottwald. NewMarket a few weeks ago gave Venture Richmond the property for the amphitheater where much of the damage took place.

At the same time, according to sources, NewMarket is now contradicting the Times Dispatch to say that NewMarket had absolutely no role in the demolition of the wall located on the City’s property.

Another fact to keep in mind- the City Council 5th District’s boundary was slightly altered earlier this year to include the 2nd Street area.

The City’s new Riverfront Plan should be coming up at City Council very soon. It’s worth remembering that citizens spoke at planning meetings in favor of renovating the Kanawha Canal as a priority of this Riverfront Plan.

Oregon Hill residents have contacted the City’s Commonwealth Attorney to see how the criminal investigation is going. Stay tuned…

Despite Opposition, 2nd Street Connector Construction Starts

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Despite opposition from the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, the Sierra Club Falls of the James, citizens, as well as open government concerns, the City is pushing ahead with construction of the 2nd Street Connector.

Yesterday, despite promises for full exploration of the historic significance of the site, over 150 feet of century old structural canal brick wall was destroyed.

From City press release:

Construction on Richmond’s new street that will connect Second Street to Tredegar Street on the north side of the James River downtown will have a minimal effect on visitors to the James River Park’s Belle Isle who park in the Tredegar Street lot.

The first or eastern entrance to the lot on Tredegar Street will be closed effective Tuesday, October 16, due to construction on the new connector street; however, the second or western entrance to the lot, as well as the entire lot itself, will remain open throughout the entire construction period.

Amphitheater Topography

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While Venture Richmond turns on the PR machine in advance of this weekend’s folk festival, Oregon Hill neighbors received a copy of the topography of the planned 2nd Street Connector which is adjacent to the proposed amphitheater. This topography drawing shows that there are good sight lines for an amphitheater without damaging the canal. Will Venture Richmond, which say it represents ‘downtown’, respect neighbors’ wishes to protect the historic canal?