Work on 5.2 miles of Rock Creek Trails to start soon, last two years and include detours

In March, DDOT announced that they were close to starting work on the $12 million Rock Creek Park Multi-Use Trail and Pedestrian Bridge Project that will rehabilitate 4.1 miles of trail, including a new bridge, and build another 1.1 miles of new trail. The contract was to go out this past spring with work starting in the summer, I suspect after the federal portion of the work is done. 

Rendering of the new bridge over Rock Creek

There are four parts to the project. First, in stage 1, the 0.4 mile Rose Park Trail in Georgetown will be closed and rehabilitated, and expanded.

Then 3.7 miles of the trail between P Street, NW and the Broad Branch/Grove 2 North parking area will be rehabilitated. These will connect to the sections that were rebuilt during by the FHWA Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division (EFLHD) over the last couple of years. This work will go on during stages 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7B. During this, an existing 0.2 mile long dirt path between Pierce Mill and Broad Branch will be paved (Stage 7A). 

Concurrent with stages 1-4, the construction team will build a new bridge over Rock Creek just south of the Zoo Tunnel. This project is part of the FHWA contribution to the project and is not under DDOT's contract. The new bridge will create a better option than the narrow sidewalk on the existing bridge, though that sidewalk will remain. 

Finally, during stage 5, a new 0.9 mile section will be built along Piney Branch Parkway from Beach Drive to Arkansas Avenue.

Over the 24-27 month long project there will several closures that might impact cyclists. Most notably during Stage 2, when the trail will be closed from P to Shoreham and trail users will be directed onto Florida, 19th and Calvert,  I won't go through all the closures and detours but they're in the presentation (Stage 5 also has a long detour). During Stage 6 the construction team will use rubber turfdeck mats to keep a trail open.

Just for the fun of it, here's another rendering of the bridge, from above.

Comments

[ed blanksport]

hmmm - am I reading it right that it doesn't address the super narrow portion of the trail between Penn and P(?)?

[washcycle]

Ed, that's correct.

[DCAKen]

Back in 2006/2007 before that section of the trail was repaved as the Parkway was getting rebuilt (http://www.thewashcycle.com/2007/04/rock_creek_bike.html), I seem to remember public meetings where the question of widening the trail (it was even narrower than it is now!) came up. NPS stated that they couldn't make the trail any wider because that would mean narrowing the parkway.

And you can't make the road narrower or drivers might have to actually keep to the posted 35 mph limit

[ed blanksport]

ugh. thank you for the info.