At the last community meeting on the Park Van Ness project last April, Saul Centers predicted it would be able to reopen the sidewalk at 4455 Connecticut Avenue at the end of this year. Now, it says, we will have to wait two more months.
Please heed this sign at Connecticut and Albemarle until the end of February. (photo by Pat Davies)
More precisely, the date to circle on your calendar is February 26th. Representatives from Saul Centers and Clark Construction broke the news at the ANC 3F meeting on Tuesday, December 15th.
The B.F. Saul Company’s Richard Houghton explained in a follow-up email the delay is due to “unforeseen deteriorated Pepco infrastructure along the north side of the public right of way.” Four manhole covers and two electrical duct banks had to be repaired or replaced before Park Van Ness could be hooked up to the electrical grid.
In late October, Pepco told Saul Centers the work would take four to six months, so Saul agreed to do it instead, at its own expense, in hopes of getting it done more quickly. Saul completed the work in two months, but that still meant delaying work on the sidewalk.
This will be a partial sidewalk opening. The completed sidewalk will be ten feet wide when it opens fully at the end of April. The partial sidewalk will be five feet wide. A temporary fence will separate pedestrians from the still-active construction project. Periodically, the sidewalk will be closed a few minutes at a time to allow deliveries at the Yuma Street driveway.
Work on the building itself is three months behind schedule. Saul Centers now sees the building opening in April. A representative told ANC 3F the company had underestimated the difficulty of working on a site with a sharp drop-off on one side, as well as the time to install the large amount of masonry used in this project. The weather last winter and June’s heavy rainstorms also caused delays.
While we wait for the sidewalk to reopen, please take the time to cross Connecticut Avenue at Albemarle Street or Windom Place to reach the open sidewalk on the west side of the avenue. We’ve heard reports of an uptick of pedestrians on the east side of the roadway during evening rush hour.
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Marchesa says
The sidewalk will remain closed when metro once again closes the west entrance to Van Ness, and once again, pedestrians will be required to cross Connecticut Ave twice each way during morning and evening rush hour in the dead of winter. Was this addressed at the meeting?
Will the new 10 foot wide sidewalk be narrower than it was before Saul constructed Park Van Ness?
Tracy J. says
DDOT’s Matthew Marcou said at the ANC meeting that WMATA would close the west entrance again at the end of February or early March, so if there is some overlap, it will be only a few days.
It might be more accurate to say the public space in front of Park Van Ness is wider than we had before. The sidewalk itself will be ten feet, but the entire public space fronting the building will be 30 feet. Space on either side of the walkway will be reserved for tree boxes and cafe seating.
Most of the public space at Van Ness Square was taken up by plantings and parking.
This is from Park Van Ness’s last construction update in April: https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/whats-going-on-at-the-park-van-ness-project-heres-the-exterior-work-timeline/
Martin A. says
Thanks for the update.
Does anyone yet know, and is authorized to make public, what stores, restaurants, and services will be moving into those sidewalk-adjacent spaces? And if not, when, and where, will the full list be made available?
Tracy J. says
A couple of large tenants have been announced: https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/new-neighbors-in-van-ness-dc-sfoglina-pasta-restaurant-and-soapstone-market/
It’ll be interesting to see what retail space is left, and what fills them.
Martin A. says
Thanks Tracy. Fingers crossed for a decent hardware store so we don’t have to go all the way to Tenleytown every time we need to replace a washer!
Green Eyeshades says
I hate to say this, but it seems laughable for B. F. Saul and Clark Construction to claim that they will reopen the sidewalk in front of Park Van Ness in only 16 days from today. The northern half of the frontage of that site along Connecticut Avenue looks like World War I trenches dug into raw dirt.
The fifth paragraph of this story mentioned the “Yuma Street driveway.” That driveway is swarming with Fort Myer Construction Co. workers today; they appear be finishing the concrete surface of the driveway and doing something on the sidewalk south of the driveway, which does appear to be nearly complete. That level of extra activity is enouraging. But absolutely nothing is taking place in the trenches north of that driveway.
Two weeks and two days to go. I bet they don’t make it.
Tracy J. says
You’d win the bet! At the January 3F meeting, ANC Commissioner Gresham said Saul had run into unexpected repair work on Pepco infrastructure on the north end of sidewalk, and work was further slowed by the big snowstorm. We’ve been seeking an update from Saul and Clark.
Related to the project, but not the sidewalk, Gresham also says CaBi is returning to the site where the bus stop used to be located, at the south end of the site.