Sue Keil is concerned that one day, she’ll be trapped. “Trees fall down here and I want to be able to go left or right,” Keil said.

Keil lives on Kendale Road, her driveway next to what had been a bridge over the Ken Branch, which flows into Cabin John Creek. The bridge was closed in early July after this spring’s rains created a situation where water is flowing over the bridge, rather than under it.

Flooding at the site is fairly common, said Joel Nagram, senior engineer for the Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPWT). “Right now that road floods over five times a year,” Nagram said.

Rather than expending resources to continue to fix the bridge, the county came up with a plan to repair it entirely. Several residents on the road preferred the idea of closing it entirely, Nagram said, but that was rejected due to access concerns raised by police, fire and school officials.

As a result, the county developed a plan for a new bridge, but part of that plan called for placing rip-rap, or large stones, in the stream.

The land on either side of the stream is owned by Nicholas Kyriakopoulos and his wife. The county asked Kyriakopoulos for an easement to be able to place and maintain the rip-rap. “We put in for 60 feet of stone armoring and needed an extra 10 feet for all the equipment,” Nagram said.

Kyriakopoulos first offered the county the ability to work in the stream when necessary, but wished to maintain ownership. The county rejected this plan since it might create a problem for future property owners.

Kyriakopoulos, a professor of engineering at George Washington University, also disputed the county’s assertion that it would require 70 feet of the stream. “The way that they came up with the easement was completely arbitrary,” Kyriakopoulos said.

Nagram states that the county went back to their design consultant and had him look at the stream again. This time the consultant recommended a differently shaped stream, trapezoidal instead of flat, which would require the rip-rap only 40 feet downstream.

Kyriakopoulos still believed the numbers to be arbitrary. He states that he asked to see the calculations which the county used to determine where the riprap was needed and was repeatedly denied.

Nagram states that Kyriakopoulos was shown the designs.

DPWT decided it could wait no longer for the property acquisition.

“In January I got a letter saying they would do a quick-take via counsel,” Kyriakopoulos said.

Quick-take is method of taking property for the public good which circumvents, and is therefore faster than the traditional method of condemning and acquiring property.

The county will assess the value of the land, in this case, $19,400, via an independent appraiser and then place that money with the court. It can only be used in emergency situations.

Once this is done, the county takes possession of the land. The landowner can dispute the assessment of the property, but disputing the quick take is difficult. “The county’s ability to condemn an take land for the public good is well established,” said Ken Hartman, spokesman for Councilmember Howard Denis (R-1).

Denis voted against the quick-take. “[He] felt that public works hadn’t worked hard enough to reach an agreement with Mr. Kyriakopoulos,” Hartman said.

Kyriakopoulos, points out that the process has been going on for several years. “Emergency is not the proper word,” he said. “I think the way the county interprets the county code is outrageous.”

Nagram disagrees. He points out that in spots, the guardrails are no longer affixed to the cement and parts of the bridge itself are falling into the water. “It is a serious safety issue,” Nagram said. “All it takes is someone to try to cross that stream [during a storm] and stall. The car could be swept away in the current.”

Kyriakopoulos is now left with little recourse, and has not yet made a decision about what he’ll do. He can take the money or attempt to appeal, but appeals of this sort are rarely successful. “It’s pretty absolute,” Hartman said.