Alexandria Fire Department
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by an Alexandria resident revealed that the Alexandria Fire Department would have preferred leaving Seminary Road four lanes for safety reasons.
This fall, after a year-long discussion and study process, City Council voted 4 to 3 to put Seminary Road on a “diet” — reducing the major east-west thoroughfare from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane. Repaving from the intersection of Quaker Lane on the east end to Howard Street on the west end of the “diet” portion was done in late October and early November.
The road was redesigned to provide safer crossings and pathways for pedestrians and bikers while encouraging vehicular traffic to travel at safer, slower speeds.
Before and after the “diet,” residents raised concerns about whether fire department vehicles, including ambulances, would be able to safely and quickly respond to emergencies.
Wednesday night, administrators of the Facebook group ‘Alexandria Residents Against the Seminary Road Diet’ posted documents they received as the results of a FOIA request. The documents included a listing of communications between Alexandria Fire Department officials and Transportation & Environmental Services.
Also in the documents: a June 12 email from Deputy Fire Chief Michael Cross to Transportation & Environmental Services’ Christine Mayeur, Complete Streets Program Manager.
In that communication, on which several City officials were copied, Cross wrote, “I’d like to point out that this section of Seminary Road is a heavily used road for emergency vehicles for transporting patients to Alexandria Hospital Emergency Department, and responding to calls in the east and downtown sections of the City from Alexandria Hospital at 4320 Seminary Rd. and Fire Station 206 at 4609 Seminary Rd.”
Also in that email, Cross outlined multiple concerns about road designs that were under consideration at the time, including the need for street width of 11 feet (Cross was willing to compromise at 10 feet, 6 inches), concerns about pedestrian safety when emergency vehicles respond and more.
Under his “Concern #3” in the email regarding the section of road from St. Stephens east to Zabriskie Drive, Cross wrote: “Narrowing the road from 4 lanes to 3 lanes, by making only 1 eastbound sharrow lane will negatively impact emergency responses along a heavily used emergency response route for hospital and fire station travel.” Cross then suggested leaving the roadway 4 lanes in that area.
The documents and list of communications are available here.
Alexandria resident Frank Putzu, who requested the documents and posted an analysis, also detailed subsequent emails between city officials regarding “messaging” to residents and questions there was adequate communication between emergency responders and Transportation & Environmental Services officials.
In discussions with residents both online and in person, Mayor Justin Wilson has defended the road diet, noting that it has made the road safer and more usable for walkers and bikers without much negative impact on vehicular travel.
Alexandria Fire Department Chief Corey Smedley, who was acting chief during the Seminary Road debate, said there had been no complaints from emergency responders and that all the Fire Department’s concerns had been addressed.
