A project to “deck over” part of busy Connecticut Avenue NW in Dupont Circle and turn the space into a new public plaza is expected to start in the fall, but residents and businesses say they’re not getting enough information about the impacts the project would have.
After a recent report about the plans, residents started raising concerns.
“They have just told us, ‘Well, we’re going to take your concerns,’ which for me is an equivalent of thoughts and prayers,” said John Hassell, who lives on nearby 19th Street NW.
“It’s really only now that people are realizing, ‘Oh, there’s going to be a construction zone in my backyard,’ and that’s frightening,” said Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Meg Roggensack, who fully supports the plan.
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Residents are debating the necessity of the $30 million project and the impacts to businesses and traffic.
Roggensack doesn’t sugarcoat the impact to businesses.
“We talk about the merchants here,” she said. “They’ve just been through one of the toughest challenges, multiyear pandemic, and we want them to survive this, as well, and that’s going to be hard. They’re going to have construction right in front of their door.”
Transportation
Reporter Adam Tuss and the News4 team are covering you down on the roads and in transit.
Hassell worries three years of construction will push traffic down his street.
“This sign right here says the street is too narrow to handle trucks that have this kind of limitation on it,” he said pointing out a sign reading, “No thru trucks over 1 ¼ ton capacity.” “This street cannot handle the traffic that would come from this project up 19th Street.”
Another public meeting with the D.C. Department of Transportations is being eyed for the spring.
