The Department of General Services (DGS) announced Wednesday that the traffic study to inform the Eastern Market Metro Park (EMMP) project will begin this Monday, February 25, 2019, throughout the project area.
The study will run from February 25 through March 4, weather permitting.
Residents can expect to see workers setting up the project and equipment in the area. The equipment will remain for the duration of the study.
The traffic study was expected to take place in January but was delayed due to the Federal government shut down in order to ensure it captured the commuting patterns of employees.
The will help study inform decision about the site plan. At a Feb. 6th community meeting on the project, the DGS design-build team said that they were still discussing whether to close D Street SE to traffic on for the short length between Eighth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to the north of Penn (Parcel 6, in front of Trader Joe’s) and south (Parcel 3, in front of Dunkin Donuts), noting that the south portion was more likely to be closed at this point in planning.
The team also noted that the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) had been looking at reversing the direction of D Street SE to proceed westbound on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue, away from Eighth Street SE. Pointing out that such a reversal might help relieve congestion in the area, the team said they were considered a similar reversal for D Street north of Pennsylvania, so that traffic would proceed westbound away from Eighth Street.
DGS has scheduled the next EMMP Community meeting, at which a third and potentially final concept design will be presented, for Wednesday, April 2. Wednesday, April 3. The meeting takes place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Eastern Market North Hall (Seventh Street and North Carolina Avenue SE).
Survey results, presentations and the most recent EMMP concept drawings are available on the DGS project website.
You can reach the team by emailing or emmp@dc.gov Contact Project Managers Cassidy Mullen at Cassidy.mullen@dc.gov (202) 671-2629 and Lisa Dixon lisa.dixon@dc.gov (202) 645-9271.
