Steve Burns and Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The District Department of Transportation originally planned to stop all road work for 12 days starting Jan. 13, three days before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and ending Jan. 24, four days after Inauguration Day. Now that schedule has changed. There won’t be any roadwork from the day before MLK Day, Monday Jan. 15 or on the holiday. Crews will also stay off the roads from the day before the 58 Presidential Inauguration, Thursday Jan. 19, through the day after it, Saturday Jan. 21 when large protests are scheduled.
Lane closures won’t be allowed for non-emergency work within the District’s rights of way.
In a press release, DDOT said the dates were changed after the department consulted with the Metropolitan Police Department and contractors.
As WMAL reported this morning, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton wrote to DDOT Director Leif Dormsjo asking him to reconsider the original dates.
Norton told WMAL yesterday, the shutdown was unprecedented and an overreaction. She said there had never been road work suspensions in years past around MLK Day and Inauguration Day and didn’t know why there would be this year.
DDOT didn’t say whether the changes were made in response to Norton’s letter.
WMAL has reached out to DDOT and the congresswoman for comment this morning.
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