DDOT has made some changes to a Forest Hills intersection where three streets meet, and stop signs were often treated as suggestions.
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 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.
Other retrofit project plans have changed.
DDOT recently narrowed 36th Street NW at Fessenden Street by extending the curbs on both sides.
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.
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.