Entering the Georgetown campus from Canal Road is about to become safer and more convenient, University officials say, thanks to a construction project set to begin after more than two decades of planning. The Federal Highway Administration, which is managing the project, plans to begin construction on a new intersection and access road by early spring.
University Architect Alan Brangman said the project will provide additional lanes on Canal Road and a traffic signal. The new intersection will be located about 300 feet east of the current entrance. Once the project is complete in late fall, vehicles will be able to make controlled left turns into and out of campus. During the morning rush hours, however, left turns out of campus will not be allowed.
Currently traffic is only allowed to enter and exit from Canal Road’s westbound lanes, which leads many commuters to cut through residential neighborhoods on their way to the University’s Prospect Street entrance.
University spokeswoman Julie Green Bataille said the changes have been under consideration since 1976. In the early 1980s, according to National Capital Planning Commission documents, local residents’ concerns that a signal would foul morning traffic shelved the project for the rest of the decade.
A1990 environmental study conducted by the FHWA estimated the project will keep as many as 200 cars per rush hour period off Georgetown’s residential streets by allowing direct access to Canal Road. Since then, the FHWA has held a series of community meetings about the project, most recently on Nov. 12. In 1999, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E passed a resolution in support of the project; the NCPC approved the plans in 2001.
Bataille noted that the reconfigured entrance will be more convenient for faculty and staff who park in the Southwest Quad garage. “[T]hose who park on campus now will have greater access to exiting the University from this location,” she said in an e-mail.
Bataille said that during construction, the entrance will remain open to traffic except during limited periods that have yet to be determined. The construction will not change traffic patterns or parking locations, Brangman said.
