DDOT has made some changes to a Forest Hills intersection where three streets meet, and stop signs were often treated as suggestions.
Map detail from a January 2024 DDOT handout.
A new curb extension on Davenport Street NW east of Linnean Avenue makes westbound drivers turn slightly to continue up Davenport.
The built-in curve doesn’t stop drivers from blowing through the stop sign, but it does slow them down.
There’s also a new six-foot-wide sidewalk.
The sidewalk segment while under construction.
The completed sidewalk and curb extension.
The intersection changes were part of DDOT’s Broad Branch/Spring Valley Stormwater Retrofit Project.
“[The project’s] primary objectives are to enhance water quality in the District’s water bodies and deliver additional advantages such as traffic calming, mitigation of the urban heat island effect, and the creation of green spaces,” DDOT said in a January 2024 handout.
DDOT wanted to reduce the impermeable surface area at Davenport and Linnean, and is doing the same thing at Linnean and Fessenden Street.
DDOT is replacing impermeable pavement with green space and tightening the corner for drivers turning right onto Linnean Avenue from Fessenden Street NW.
Other retrofit project plans have changed.
DDOT recently narrowed 36th Street NW at Fessenden Street by extending the curbs on both sides.
One of the new curb extensions on 36th Street at Fessenden.
The original plans had a curb extension a bit farther up 36th Street, and included bioretention elements that capture stormwater. They would have looked similar to those installed on Davenport near 30th Street NW last year.
One of the Davenport Street bioretention installations.
But a DDOT representative told ANC 3F in March that bioretention would not be included in further retrofit project construction.
Forest Hills Connection has reached out to DDOT for details about the decision and the reasons for the change in plans.
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Paul says
Linnean Avenue NW needs a comprehensive traffic management plan due to the continual flow of speeding commuter, contractor, and other commercial traffic throughout the day, Speeding is the rule, and stop signs are ignored for the most part. Years of complaints about the speeding to DDOT, the ANC and Council Members has never achieved results. Bumping corners out a little bit here, and a little bit there is not a plan. It’s a gesture.
Mohammad says
The bioretentions are necessary IMO. Both for metals removal but also aesthetics. This needs to be addressed ASAP!!!
Paul says
The concrete and curbs for the curb extension at Linnean Avenue and Fessenden Street is now in place. Problems already:
– The workers eliminated the mandatory ADA curb ramp that was at that location, making it even more difficult for people with mobility needs to travel up and down Linnean..
– Because the residents of the 4900 and 5000 blocks of Linnean Avenue have the habit of parking on the street, the new curb’s extension into Linnean narrows the trafficway to barely a lane. Good set up for fender benders.
Does no one in DDOT think about how their plans actually work on the ground?