Fenty Administration Kicks-Off Great Streets Pennsylvania Avenue ARRA Project

$30M Streetscape Improvement Project

(Washington, DC) – Mayor Adrian M. Fenty along with District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Gabe Klein and community members today kicked-off another District American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) transportation project.  Today’s project includes DDOT’s Great Streets Pennsylvania Avenue initiative, a $30M project focused on developing a full vision for the transportation operations and public realm character of this major corridor.  DDOT worked closely with the community throughout the planning of this project holding numerous meetings and partnering with local community groups including the East of Sousa Bridge Pennsylvania Avenue Revitalization Task Force, a grassroots community lead organization that provided valuable insight to the traffic safety concerns and problems impacting this major commuter route.

“I am extremely pleased to be here today to begin yet another Great Streets project for the District,” said Mayor Fenty.  “This project, through its comprehensive design, is strongly focused on reestablishing historic neighborhoods and will create a unifying place where neighborhoods from north and south of the corridor can come together to shop visit, play, learn and live without being separated any longer by extreme traffic conditions.”

The Great Streets program links transportation investments in the physical infrastructure “between the curbs” with economic development investments in private properties “behind the curb.” The objective is to improve neighborhoods quality of life and expand economic opportunity and success of existing and additional businesses.  

“DDOT could not be more pleased to be part of this historic transformation along this culturally rich corridor,” said DDOT Director Klein.  “The investment in this major project includes planned reduction of lanes, a new landscaped median and the completion of the sidewalk network on both sides of this roadway.  It will not only improve the character of the neighborhood but more important provide a safer walkable environment for residents and visitors to this area.”

This section of Pennsylvania Avenue is home to many historic and proud neighborhoods, among them Fairlawn, Randall Highlands, Hillcrest and Fairfax Village.  These neighborhoods, primarily African American are rich in economic, cultural and generational diversity.  

The Pennsylvania Avenue Great Streets project covers 6.5 lane miles of construction from 200 ft. west of 27th Street to Southern Avenue and will include the installment of a median, streetscape, utility upgrades, new curb, gutter, pavement and landscaping.  The project is designed to create a safe place where residents, visitors and regional travelers can travel over, across, to and through the corridor on foot, bus or car with ease and comfort while developing a street that is kind to the natural and human environment with majestic trees, enhanced park spaces, and reduction of the environmental impact of the corridor.

The project also includes the construction of three environmentally friendly raingardens.  Raingardens are a method of treating storm runoff by utilizing a mixture of soil and plants to filter out pollutants prior to the runoff entering our storm sewer systems.  

A portion of the corridor will be reduced from 5 lanes to 4 lanes and in its place will be a landscaped median and turn pockets that protect pedestrians and neighborhood vehicles.  There will be expanded on-street parking at the three retail nodes along the corridor and DDOT will complete the sidewalk network on both sides of the street for the full length of the corridor.  In addition, the project will improve signal operations and traffic management and integrate transit facilities to promote and enhance transit travel.

Construction will be done in four phases with work hours from 7am – 7pm Monday through Friday.  During construction one lane of traffic will maintained at all times with a reversible lane allowing for two lanes of traffic during applicable rush hour traffic.  Parking restrictions will be posted in advance.  

The District received a total of $123.5M in ARRA funding for transportation related projects including road, bridges and other transportation related programs.  Over $80M of the total monies are identified as state highway funds.  

For a full list of DDOT’s stimulus projects or more detail on the District’s ARRA projects, visit the District’s stimulus web site at recovery.dc.gov.

For more information on DDOT’s Pennsylvania Avenue Great Streets project visit www.greatstreetspennave.com.