ANC 3F has a punch list for DC Water.
The ANC’s Parks and Watersheds Committee has developed a list of remaining small projects to be done before the Soapstone Valley sewer relining project is completed. Commissioner Mitchell Baer will present for consideration at tonight’s ANC meeting a resolution with this list.
The six items include trail maintenance, tree replanting and the installation of a fence at the top of the stone cascade, just down the trail from the Albemarle trailhead.
“I hope that this will be a common list for DC Water and the community to use as the project is wrapping up,” Baer told Forest Hills Connection.
The below resolution is an addition to the draft agenda, which we previously posted here. The virtual meeting will begin at 7 p.m., and you can connect here.
RESOLUTION REGARDING DISPOSITION OF REMAINING WORK INSIDE ROCK CREEK PARK WITHIN SOAPSTONE VALLEY FOR DC WATER MAIN AND TRUNK SEWER LINES RELINING PROJECT
Whereas, DC Water has been performing operations relining the main and connecting trunk sewer lines within the Soapstone Valley since March 2022, and
Whereas, DC Water has completed all relining work except for a 300-foot section of sewer pipe from a manhole at the intersection of Albemarle Street and 32nd Street, NW to a manhole located behind the Park Van Ness apartment building, considered outside Rock Creek Park, and
Whereas, DC Water is completing replanting and trail reconstruction activities on land administered by the National Park Service and the DC Department of Transportation from Broad Branch Road along Audubon Terrace to Albemarle Street, and
Whereas, this remaining work consists of replanting trees, the reconstruction of Soapstone Trail from the Albemarle Street trailhead past the rock cascade to the western terminus Audubon Terrace and from the eastern terminus of Audubon Terrace to Broad Branch Rd, and then decommissioning the temporary roadways within the valley.
Be it resolved that ANC 3F directs DC Water to address the following aspects of the Soapstone
Valley project before completion of the project:
1. Trails on the DDOT paper roadway between Albemarle Street and Broad Branch Road will be returned to their pre-project condition with firm surfaces mixed with gravel or stones. Rolling grade dips will be installed along the trail from the eastern end of Audubon Terrace to the Linnean Outfall. DC Water will seek and follow the advice of Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) and NPS volunteer and staff guidance.
2. Dead or dying trees are replaced during the Fall, 2024.
3. Repair of the wooden culvert discharging water from the Hillwood property, located 100 yards from the Broad Branch trailhead will be filled with gravel and stepping stone(s).
4. Fall planting of appropriate vegetation around the upslope area of the trail at the culvert at the rock cascade. Until this planting is completed, appropriate shielding of this area will be done with branches. DC Water will seek and follow the advice of PATC and NPS volunteer and staff guidance.
5. Installation of a fence and appropriate vegetation at the top of the rock cascade in Site 1.
6. Removal of [straw] along the trail from the Albemarle trailhead, re-sloping of the trail, and incorporation of gravel or stones onto the trail. DC Water will seek and follow the advice of PATC and NPS volunteers and staff guidance.
ANC 3F approved/did not approve this resolution at its meeting on June 18, 2023, which was properly noticed and at which a quorum was present, by a vote of XX in favor, XX opposed, and XX abstaining.