Adam Tuss, The Examiner
2008-05-05 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Oh what a joy it has been to take a trip on the Rock Creek Parkway in D.C. lately. Orange construction barrels, lane closures and repaving operations have been common between Virginia Avenue and P Street Northwest.

Along with the milling and grinding from road crews, traffic has ground to a halt both northbound and southbound.

The project on this very popular commuter route started more than a year ago, in April. For the daily driver, deciding whether to take the roadway has become a guessing game — sometimes it is clear, but most of the time there are backups.

The National Park Service and Federal Highway Administration are the agencies managing everything.

They had hoped to have the entire project finished by this month, but now it looks like things will take a little longer than expected.

There is some good news.

Drivers may have noticed that lane resurfacing has started — this is a good sign — it means the project is winding down. In fact the operation is expected to wrap up in the next couple of weeks.

As for the time being, you will still have to deal with some delays.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, the roadwork scheduled for this week is as follows:

SOUTHBOUND

Placing new asphalt in the left lane between the P Street overpass and Virginia Avenue.

NORTHBOUND

Milling the left lane between Virginia Avenue and the P Street overpass. Once that is finished, new asphalt will go down in that lane.

HIKER/BIKER TRAIL

The new trail (along the Georgetown side of the roadway) is open to pedestrians between the Virginia Avenue intersection and the P Street ramp. It is expected to close, however, at a later time, although the Federal Highway Administration does not have that date in place yet.

Drivers should continue to pack their patience for the trip along Rock Creek Parkway, but have faith; the finish line is near.

Got a traffic/transit/travel advisory you want answered? E-mail Adam at atuss@wtopnews.com. We may use your comment in our next column.