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Preservation Board Approves
NPS Tunnel Scheme

On February 28, 2002, the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) in D.C. approved the "design concept" for the National Park Service's Washington Monument proposal (the walled walkways, underground visitors center, and tunnel), making it the third body, after National Capital Planning Commission (Feb. 7th) and Commission of Fine Arts (Feb. 21st), to do so.

This occurred after the National Coalition, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, and the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2A all provided testimony urging the HPRB to postpone any action until historic, cultural, environmental, and geotechnical studies had been completed.

Nonetheless, these agencies are treating the project simply as a modification of a 1993 design concept (on paper only), even though that project was only a concept -- not an actual plan -- and did not have walls or a tunnel.

Apparently, the stewards of our public parkland believe that putting walls on the grassy slope encircling the Monument, and cutting a tunnel through the Monument's historically unstable foundation, are only minor details and should not hold up the project.

Our rejoinder is that the still-to-be-completed studies may show that this project is unfeasible -- the walls may not be adequate to replace the Jersey barriers in stopping a truck bomb; cutting the foundation may be an unacceptable risk to take. What then? Where are the alternatives? Why is the Park Service being encouraged to continue to develop this plan when so much is unknown? No answer is given by the NCPC, the CFA, or the HPRB. We all know what happens with the passage of time and the dedication of man hours to a project: it is then "too late" to turn back. Needless to say, remember the WWII Memorial.

All is not lost, however. There is still the remarkable and unprecedented Section 106 process that the Park Service has just initiated with members of the public, including the National Coalition. You will remember that on February 6th, the NPS REVERSED (also unprecedented) its Jan. 11th finding of "no adverse effect" for the project, stating that it was premature. This followed upon the National Coalition's and Committee of 100's letters claiming that the public was being shut out, and our request that the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation enter the process because of the controversy, which it then did.

After that, the NPS invited public participation in the Section 106 process. We had a meeting at the NPS on Feb. 20th -- participants included the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the NCPC, the Committee of 100, the National Coalition, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the ANC 2A (Advisory Neighborhood Commission). Astonishingly, the evening before this meeting was to be held, we received by fax a "Draft Programmatic Agreement" (PA) that the NPS hoped we would all sign by Friday, Feb. 22th, bringing to an end the Section 106 process (2 days after it was to begin).

At that meeting, the NPS presented the project and had its engineer talk about the Monument's history of instability for 3 hours. Without any studies or data to back it up, the NPS and its engineer stated that the Monument was now fine, that the deep excavations at the WWII Memorial will have no effect on the Monument, and so on.

We were then asked what it would take for us to sign this PA, (which stated in essence that the Park Service would complete their studies and then make the determination of effect -- "no" or "adverse"). So, on February 27th, we submitted our comments in writing.

Among other things stated, we wanted the studies to be completed and reviewed by the public before any preliminary designs (as opposed to "design concepts") were taken before the NCPC and the CFA. We argued that the public should be involved in deciding, along with the NPS and other agencies, the determination of no effect or adverse effect.

Some of our concerns included:

• The project will alter the character of the Monument grounds -- and the Mall's cross-axis -- by erecting encircling walls of yet-undetermined height;
• It will alter people's experience of the Monument, since visitors will have to burrow underground through a long tunnel to ascend the 555 foot obelisk;
• The water table, which has dropped 15 feet since the 1960s (causing the Monument to settle), has not been tested since 1973. Although an international water specialist and other independent engineers raised serious concerns about the settling of the Monument back in 1997 (due to serious concerns about excavations for the World War II Memorial), the National Park Service ignored this issue. Current conditions are still unknown, and this is BEFORE they start deep excavations at the nearby WWII Memorial;
• The Monument's foundation (dating from the 1870's) will be cut into, and buttresses will be added to the sides, in order to construct the tunnel. This is despite repeated warnings since the 1960's (and before) that any soil disturbance within 200 feet of the Monument could destabilize it.

Alice in Wonderland now has special meaning for me.

Congress needs to be informed about the potential threat BEFORE it's a done deal (Capitol switchboard = 202-224-3121). Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia is anxious to replace the ugly Jersey barriers on the Monument grounds, but she is also aware of the environmental problems; her point man on this is Damon Harvey = 202-225-8050; fax = 202-224-3002.

Both Congressional committees that oversee Washington, D.C., and the National Park Service are represented by the following people who also sit on the National Capital Planning Commission:

Kiersten Todt Coon
202-224-2627/ fax 202-224-9682
Professional Staff Member
Committee on Governmental Affairs (The Honorable Joseph Lieberman, Chairman)
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Mike Layman
202-225-5074/ fax 202-225-3974
Professional Staff Member
Committee on Government Reform (The Honorable Dan Burton, Chairman)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

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