Reconstruction of 17th Street NW to begin Monday

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Reconstruction of 17th Street NW to begin Monday

by Stephen Miller • November 24, 2009 12:10 pm

The long-planned streetscape project for 17th Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire Avenues will begin on Monday.

Photo from DDOT.

DDOT staffers updated residents at a community meeting last night. This project will bring ADA-compliant curb ramps, new tree boxes, street lamps and new road and sidewalk surfaces to 17th Street. When asked for a comparison project with a similar look and feel, DDOT staff offered the Park Road reconstruction between 14th Street and Mt. Pleasant as an example. While the 17th Street project, funded entirely by $4.5 million of ARRA stimulus dollars, is not as bold as it could have been, it will be an improvement to the streetscape of this neighborhood spine.

17th Street streetscape plan. Click for larger version. Courtesy of DDOT.

The reconfigured 17th Street will maintain two traffic lanes and parking on both sides of the street, with a new five-foot wide bike lane on the west side of the street. One resident observed that it would be safer to place the lane on the east side of the street, so cyclists are not in the door zone on the driver's side of parked cars. DDOT staff at the meeting stated that "striping is the last thing we do" and that the location of the bike lane could be subject to change, but did not make any promises.

The other bike-related news for 17th Street is that individual parking meters will be removed, to be replaced by multispace meters. To make up for lost bike parking, new U-racks are included in the plan, but DDOT staff last night were unable to say whether this change will result in a net gain or net loss of bike parking on the street.

Major resident concerns at the meeting centered on reducing the number of trees slated to be replaced by preserving a greater number of existing trees where possible, and ensuring that the sidewalk on the east side of the street extends 10 feet from the curb edge, unimpeded by outdoor restaurant seating. DDOT staff promised to follow up on these issues, including a walk of the corridor to assess individual trees with residents and consultations with restaurants that have outdoor seating on 17th Street.

The contractor for the reconstruction project is Capitol Paving of DC and the construction manager is The Temple Group. A project website with construction information and updates is scheduled to go live on Monday. Construction, which will begin at the southern end of 17th Street and work its way northward in four phases, is expected to take 240 days, with crews beginning at 7:00 AM and working every day of the week except Sunday. A few residents argued for a delayed start time of 8:00 AM. DDOT staff, noting the pressure to quickly complete stimulus projects, were very resistant to the delay since it would slow the pace of construction, which is already likely to be delayed by winter weather.

14 comments — Share	— tags: 17th Street, bike lanes, bike parking, DC, DDOT, Dupont Circle, sidewalks, trees

Block the lane moving out, block the lane moving in (Nov 12, 2009)
Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)
Missed opportunities on 17th Street (Oct 2, 2008)
U Street reconstruction rev-U (Aug 12, 2008)
Dupont's 18th Street next for reconstruction (May 16, 2008)

Comments

Hmm. Still see very rounded corners on the intersections.

by Jasper on Nov 24, 2009 12:14 pm

Resurfacing the entire sidewalk seems a little expensive and excessive for not much benefit. Restructuring the geometries and adding the other tangible features seem beneficial, but the concrete-and-brick sidewalk appears really nice as it is. Why the added expense of rebricking it all?

by Joey on Nov 24, 2009 12:20 pm

i believe this will be the 27th time that the intersection of 17th and r will be torn up since i moved there five years ago.

by ct on Nov 24, 2009 12:23 pm

I don't really know why this needs to be done now. 17th Street isn't really in disrepair. The sidewalks are uneven in a number of places, almost entirely as a result of the roots from old trees, but I can't imagine that an entire street project needs to happen just to repair those few places. In fact, I'm willing to bet that businesses will be especially hurt by these plans.

Finalizing the plans for 18th Street, especially the intersection at Florida Avenues would be money better spent.

by Adam L on Nov 24, 2009 12:56 pm

What is the fetish with brick sidewalks in this town, especially since the DC government seems incapable of repairing them in a timely manner?

by Moose on Nov 24, 2009 1:22 pm

Just a way to make Fenty's friends rich. $4.5 million dollars to re-do a few blocks?

by Oio4 on Nov 24, 2009 1:51 pm

A net loss of bike parking might not be so bad if it is small and the new parking spaces make more sense. 10 spaces where cyclists need them might be better than 12 spread along the street at even intervals (what you get with parking meters). In other words parking meters are not placed based on where they'll best serve cyclists so you could get improvement and still lose total numbers.

As long as they install adequate bike parking in good places I don't care about actual numbers.

by David C on Nov 24, 2009 2:18 pm

Fist Baptist Church?

by shy on Nov 24, 2009 3:25 pm

Just a way to make Fenty's friends rich. $4.5 million dollars to re-do a few blocks?

by Oio4 on Nov 24, 2009 1:51 pm

How much do you think it should cost? Any evidence that this is an unreasonable amount of money?

by Rambuncle on Nov 24, 2009 4:25 pm

I just can't understand the irrational fear of benches in DC. Oh no, somewhere we can sit and enjoy lunch! The horror!

by J on Nov 24, 2009 5:45 pm

Easily one of the more un-needed projects in the District.

by Rich on Nov 24, 2009 8:39 pm

How about protecting the bike lane by putting it on the other side of parked cars (like 15th St, but not contraflow)?

by g on Nov 24, 2009 8:53 pm

I attend meetings in the Dupont Circle area several times a week. The missing parking on 17th Street will impact the whole area. For many years the city has been reducing the number of parking spaces in the area. I think they do this so they can write more tickets. This will just make it even more time consuming to find legal parking spaces.

And based on the experience of P Street, the people who live in the area can expect their rent to go up as the landlords pass along the property tax increase.

by Charlie on Nov 25, 2009 2:42 pm

For many years the city has been reducing the number of parking spaces in the area. I think they do this so they can write more tickets. First of all, the only parking that will be removed - according to this post - is bike parking. So if you know of parking removal let us know about it. How many spaces and where? One of the advantages of multispace meters is that you can park more cars in the same space than with individual meters, so it may be that there is less "space" for parking, but no fewer "spaces".

Second, I'm not sure why you have to ascribe some nefarious plot like secretly wanting to hit people with parking tickets. DC makes $50M a year on parking tickets, removing a few spaces here and there is not going to make the District rich. In my experience, DC has been VERY reluctant to remove parking spaces. Usually when they do - like on 15th - it's so that they can make space for other road users, not so they can increase parking ticket revenue. If you have any proof to the contrary I'd love to hear it, but otherwise it sounds like a crackpot conspiracy theory.

based on the experience of P Street, the people who live in the area can expect their rent to go up as the landlords pass along the property tax increase. I'm guessing you mean the increase in property tax caused by an increase in property value? I suspect that will happen, but DC has laws against allowing that to happen too quickly. Property values generally go up, as places become more desirable. Making the district and its neighborhoods more desirable is what the government is supposed to do, IMO. If they trucked a bunch of hookers and drug dealers into your neighborhood would you cheer and say "Hurray, now my property taxes will go down!"?

by David C on Nov 25, 2009 4:30 pm