(Washington, DC) District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Gabe Klein, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Division Administrator Christopher Lawson, and Dominique Lueckenhoff, the Associate Director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Water Protection Division, participated in a community groundbreaking for the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue Great Streets Project. 

The project, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will enhance the aesthetic beauty of the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue corridor with extensive infrastructure improvements, including a reconstructed roadway and new sidewalks, traffic signals, streetlights and trees. DDOT has also incorporated many environmentally-friendly features in the design to address stormwater management, water quality, energy consumption, “urban heat island”  effect, and tree coverage.

“Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue is such an important corridor that serves and connects so many great District neighborhoods,” said DDOT Director Gabe Klein. “Our goal here is to give residents a complete street they can be proud of, and one that will serve as a model “green street” for the rest of the District.”

The environmental elements of the project are funded in part by a joint grant from FHWA and the EPA under the Green Highway Partnership. The grant includes funds for water quality monitoring during and post construction to show the project’s success is reducing the run-off of pollutants into Watts Branch and the Anacostia River. Howard University will conduct the water quality monitoring. In addition, DDOT will install 5 bioretention cells, 12 bio-tree box filters, three hundred (300’) feet of porous concrete, and plant a net increase of seventy-three new trees.

The project also includes many enhancements that will make the corridor safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue will be reconfigured with a single lane in each direction for traffic calming, and DDOT will add continuous sidewalks, curb extensions (also known as bulb-outs) and bicycle lanes.

Construction will start at Minnesota Avenue and proceed east toward Eastern Avenue. The project is expected to be completed by March 2012.

Great Streets Program

The Great Streets program links transportation investments in the physical infrastructure “between the curbs” with economic development investments in private properties “behind the curb.” The objective is to improve neighborhoods’ quality of life and expand economic opportunity and promote the success of existing and additional businesses.

The program is a partnership between the District Department of Transportation, which will invest over $150 million in transportation investments, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development who catalyzes and supports private development, and the Office of Planning which sets the overall vision for the six designated corridors.

More information about the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue Great Streets Project is available at dashboard.ddot.dc.gov under the Ward 7 project links.