17th Streetscape: Will Sidewalks Be Ready for Outdoor Dining?
Severe winter weather slowed construction work on the 17th Street commercial strip. The above image shows what the area around 17th and Church Streets will look like after work is completed. (17thstreetscape.com)
The field office of the 17th Streetscape project issued another progress update on construction work. Not surprisingly, the severe temperatures and snowstorms delayed work. The question now is whether the sidewalk work will be done in time for restaurants to open their sidewalk cafes in April (look for an update here at Borderstan this week).
According to DDoT, as of February 19, “Due to the severe weather condition, the pace of the construction work was slowed down tremendously for the the last five weeks. From January 18th through February 4th, the contractor was forced to work short weekdays because of heavy rain and snow. From February 5th through February 17th, the project was totally shut down due to the heavy snow. The remaining two days of the week were devoted to snow removal, anchoring steel plates and patching asphalt damaged by snow plowing trucks. During the last two weeks all lanes on 17th Street were open for vehicle and pedestrian traffic.”
The Streetscape project is revamping the 17th Street NW corridor north of Massachusetts Avenue with brick sidewalks, new tree boxes and other improvements. The DC Department of Transportation is posting updates about the project on a mini site devoted solely to 17th Streetscape.
