The closure of Virginia between 4th and 5th Streets, SE (seen here) has probably had the greatest impact so far, preventing vehicles from taking Virginia toward 8th Street (and its outbound ramp to I-695) unless one goes south on 4th to K, then north on 5th.

According to CSX, there will be increased prep work at this location this week, and it could see the start of drilling for steel and concrete pilings as early as the week of July 20.

Immediately to the south, the stockade fences are going up in front of the nearby townhomes, and the little stub of I Street has been closed east of 4th and east of the alley that runs between the townhouses and St. Paul's (see below left, click to enlarge). The I Street "hook" into Virginia Avenue will not reopen--the pocket park in this location will be reconfigured and enlarged once construction is finished.

Some moving of dirt has actually begun, as you see above in the shot of Virginia Avenue east of 2nd, alongside the stretch of road that was closed a few weeks ago.

The initial cutting down of trees along Virginia is particularly noticeable west of 3rd, as shown in this comparison of a 2007 photo and one from today (more before-and-afters of this intersection here):

According to the latest updates from CSX, parking will be restricted this week on Virginia between 3rd and 4th to allow for more cutting down of trees. And it's expected that perhaps as early as next week Virginia Avenue will be closed between 8th and 9th. (The numbered cross streets remain open.)

One other closure worth photographing is the underpass just to the south of Garfield Park, where skateboarders can still congregate (yay?), but is now closed to any attempts to get completely south of the freeway.

CSX is holding another one of its "Coffee with Chuck" events on Thursday, July 23 from 7:30 to 9 am at the Courtyard by Marriott at 140 L St., SE, in case you'd like to hear the latest updates and ask questions of the chief project engineer. (RSVPs requested.) Slides from the June ChucKlatch have been posted as well.

There's also now the option to receive updates on the project via SMS, should you wish.

The Virginia Avenue Tunnel official web site has more, and I've started getting my own Virginia Avenue Tunnel page prepped for the expected onslaught of before-and-afters

The trucks were all lined up on N Street as well, and clearly the word was out, because a woman rolled down the window on her tween-filled minivan to tell me that "TAYLOR IS HERE." I didn't see her, but I assume she arrived in better accommodations than one of these 18-wheelers.

For those not tracking this event minute-by-minute, there are two shows, on Monday and Tuesday nights (July 13 and 14). The gates open at 5 pm, and the show starts at 7 pm. Here's the Nats Park page listing all the items concert-goers should know in advance.

As for parking in the public lots near the ballpark, my assumption is that they are all operating as usual, though with some turnover issues given that it's a work day.

I wrote about OP's concepts after its public meeting back in December, and the designs in this final report are the same, still including elevating the road to the height of L Street directly to the north and the extensions of 13th, 14th, and 15th streets, along with varying approaches to including residential development in the median (or not) and including (or not) the underground bus parking so close to DDOT's heart.

The report reminds readers that the "purpose of this planning study was not to identify a single 'preferred alternative,' but rather to develop concepts that respond to the planning goals and objectives for the District and the community, which could be advanced through further study."

However, it goes on to say that OP has recommended developing a "hybrid concept," "based largely on the street network and development program described in Concept A, but incorporate pocket parks or other public open space interspersed throughout the new development parcels in ways that enhance the neighborhood and support the viability of new development."

And now that this study is finished, DDOT is undertaking its own feasibility study, "to determine the project development process and the economic viability of integrating the land use concepts that emerged from the Office of Planning’s (OP) Southeast Boulevard Planning Study with the transportation alternatives."

Once THAT is done, it will be all rolled into the Barney Circle-Southeast Blvd. Transportation Planning Study that began back in 2013.

In the meantime, of course, DDOT went ahead and built the road, opening it in late 2014.

I am admittedly giving short shrift to the final OP report, so if the fate of the road is of interest to you, be sure to read the whole thing, along with my post about it from last year.

Representatives of OP and DDOT will apparently be providing an update on all the Barney Circle-Southeast Blvd. studying tonight (Wednesday, July 8) at 7 pm at the Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, as part of ANC 6B's Transportation Committee meeting.

Quoting the EIS web site:

"The Draft EIS comment period concluded on May 26, 2015. The Marine Corps received comments from 14 agencies and individuals, most of which indicated a preference for one of the two alternatives that would construct the BEQ Replacement Complex on Department of Defense-owned land (Alternative 4 - Site D at the Washington Navy Yard or Alternative 5 - Site E at the MBW Annex). The Marine Corps identified Alternative 5 as the preferred alternative based on this agency and public input, as well as its proximity to the MBW Main Post and Annex, the elimination of the need for land acquisition, and the mitigatable environmental impacts of locating the replacement BEQ Complex at this site."

As described in the draft EIS, the choice of this location means that the Marines are expecting to build a six- or seven-story building that wraps around the BEQ that opened in 2004. They also expect to retain the underground parking at the 8th and I/Building 20 site they are trying to move out of (though there is already that nice big four-story aboveground garage at the L Street site that neighbors are so fond of). The playing field along Virginia Avenue is expected to be retained, however.

There is no mention of any possible closures of L Street between 5th and 7th, as had been discussed back in 2010 when the Marines were eyeing Square 882, where the Lofts at Capitol Quarter are now being built. And it was in 2012 that the Department of Defense relaxed its Force Protection Requirements, meaning that any new quarters would need only a 66-foot standoff from the street, compared to the 82 feet the original land search had been operating under.

This would seem to bring to an end the long, long road from when the Marines first launched the public process to find a new site back in 2010, which initially focused on various privately owned properties south of the freeway where the Corps though it could perhaps create a "public-private" location that would provide some services or benefits to the public. But as it became clear that businesses, officials, and residents weren't particularly excited about seeing blocks near Lower 8th Street and the Virginia Avenue Park being turned into secure, fenced locations (especially once the phrase "federal land acquisition will be unavoidable" cropped up), the Marines' choices seemed to narrow to the two federally owned sites, and now to the site that they have controlled all along.

The final EIS is expected in the fall, with the Record of Decision in early 2016.

Will post updates as needed, though as I am hitting the Post button, reports are coming out that no injuries have been found and that "all indications are no shooting."

UPDATE: Here's the WashPost reporting on the morning.

Monument Realty had come to the commission back in 2013 with plans for a 328,000-square-foot office building, but now the developer is planning both this 120,000-square-foot NAB HQ (seen at right) and a 175ish-unit residential building immediately to the south that will come to the commission at a later date. (More on that below.)

Architect Bill Hellmuth of HOK testified that the location is a "gateway" that presents an "opportunity to make a building that is unique" to the city and also acts as separate gateway to the neighborhood by Nats Park. He also mentioned that having the very un-Washington curved facade start at an overhang 29 feet above the sidewalk is a "special moment" for the building.

Retail will make up about 35 percent of the ground-floor space, although there's a possibility that some of that space will be taken by a broadcast studio in the space facing M Street (and that there would also be a window to see into the studio from the lobby). NAB will apparently occupy about half of the building, which it will be buying from Monument Realty once it's constructed.

The filing contained a few new renderings, which I of course have pilfered (UPDATE: and two of which are now nice high-res versions, thanks to Monument Realty), showing the building as seen from both the west and east along M and also from the south on South Capitol:

All in all, there were no major issues, with most commissioners commenting on the "tremendous improvement" of this design over the original one, and the board was also happy that the developers will now be applying for LEED Gold certification.

There were also discussions about whether the concrete on the penthouse is light gray or dark gray, whether portions of the facade are a dark tan or a light tan, about whether the "rectilinear" facade is more appropriate for South Capitol and the curved one being better suited for M Street, and whether a small portion of the penthouse was in violation of the Height Act or could be handled by a special exception allowing for enclosing walls of different heights. There were also a few minutes taken to dicuss whether the glass in the building is the type that can help prevent birds from flying into it (WAKE UP, I'M STILL WRITING HERE).

It's expected that the commission will take its vote on this case at its July 27 meeting.

As for the 175ish-unit residential building being planned for the south half of this site, you can see its ghost in the new rendering up top and in two of the other new renderings, plus the filing had this keen photo showing a model of the two buildings, as seen from the northwest. You may note that the residential building has its courtyard open to South Capitol Street, in a very similar fashion to JBG's 1244 South Capitol Street residential project that will be at the south end of the same block (also ghosted in the main photo up top).

See my somewhat paltry One M Street project page for shots of the site's past (spoiler alert: it's the old Domino's site) as well as links to my posts about it over the years.

At the initial hearing for the project back in May, commissioners reacted positively to the design, which includes at least 60,000 square feet of retail on two floors topped with somewhere between 350 and 445 rental and condo residential units and possibly a small hotel as well.

The issues that prevented a vote back in May appear to have been addressed, among them the removal of plans for catenary lights to be strung across Half Street and for bollards that had been placed to protect pedestrians on the curbless sidewalks during non-game times, when traffic will be allowed on Half.

New renderings were also provided to the commission, showing the view of the building along both Cushing Place and the new "Monument Place" between this building's north end and the south side of 55 M. And of course it is required that I snag them from the filing and show them to you, with the Cushing Place view looking down from M Street, showing the "intersection" with Monument Place, and then the Monument Place view looking in from Half Street:

The developers have said that their plan is to begin construction in 2016, with completion by 2018, a timeline that gets speeded up somewhat since the bulk of the excavation was done, ahem, about eight years ago.

For much more about this project, including additional renderings, you can read my summary of the May zoning hearing, my look at the initial submission, and the project page.

While I'm miffed that all work in Near Southeast did not grind to a halt while I was gone, I will still pass along these quick tidbits of news, for those who weren't doing their own newsgathering over the past 10 days.

* CRANES A'PLENTY: The residential projects at 801 New Jersey and 1111 New Jersey have now joined the lineup of sites where tower cranes are in place. This of course means that vertical construction at these locations won't be too far off, should everything go according to plan. And there's probably a crane coming before long at 909 Half as well. (Speaking of cranes, they are often lightning rods--literally, as the Dock 79 crane found out last week.)

* ROADS A'CLOSING: On Wednesday, June 24, Virginia Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets SE was closed and fenced, as part of initial Virginia Avenue Tunnel work. And a missive from CSX a few days ago says that the expectation is that Virginia will close between 4th and 5th "on or about" Wednesday, July 1. (But the cross streets will remain open.) Drivers will need to use K Street over to 5th to then continue north under the freeway, or to continue east on Virginia Avenue until that portion of road is closed as well.

* PIZZA PIZZA: There's still the pesky detail of actual construction, but at last a building permit has been approved for Nicoletta, the pizza/pasta carryout kiosk long planned by Osteria Morini's Chef Michael White in one of the small retail bays beneath the Yards Park overlook, on the Riverwalk.

* BARDO DELAYED: The plans for an outdoor park and "brew garden" on the west end of the Florida Rock site are "now looking like a fall opening," according to WBJ--"if we're lucky." "Red tape" is the reason given. WBJ also notes that the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that was looking for $200,000 to help fund the venture closed with $4,330 in contributions.

There's probably more to come, but that's good enough for now.

The masonry work appears all but completed on the south end, where the gymnasium will be. If you compare these photos to the rendering, you'll see that most of the "holes" left in the construction are where glass or exterior flourishes are planned.

As for the picture at bottom right, it was my not-particularly successful attempt to show in a single shot the progress at the Community Center, the current state of the Lofts at Capitol Quarter a block away, and the boarded up windows signaling renovations at Van Ness Elementary.

Note that it is at 200 I St., SE, not at the school itself.

The Head of School, Cynthia Robinson-Rivers, will be there, as will the initial teachers. The interior and exterior renovation plans will also be on display, as will the new playground designs.

The school is opening with PK-3, PK-4, and kindergarten classes, with plans to add one grade each year until 5th grade is reached.

I inquired within (ignoring the bewildered look of the nice lady at the front desk when I explained that I was merely the "neighborhood blogger" requesting information), and apparently they are dubbing this a soft opening, so they are not offering the full slate of care just yet.

In the coming weeks--perhaps in late July--there will be an official Grand Opening.

Banfield will be open seven days a week, from 9 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday, and 10 am to 5 pm on Sunday.

With the spaces at Twelve12 and the Boilermaker Shops all but filled, those desperately hungry for news of more retail at the Yards will probably start casting glances toward Forest City's next delivery, the 325-unit Arris apartment building and its 20,000 square feet of ground-floor space (though there's been no announcements as yet, and the building is still a number of months away from completion).

A tenant layout permit for a restaurant in 55 M has recently been applied for, referencing an occupancy of 233 seats/260 total, but my understanding is that no lease agreement had yet been signed with the owners of the 55 M Street office building where the space is located.

If this all does come to fruition*, retail space that has sat empty for five-plus years while millions of people trekked past may be finally getting a tenant.

* Exercising my normal amount of caution, given the lack of a signed lease or official announcement.

* Virginia Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets, SE, will close to traffic and parking "as soon as Monday, June 22."

* Virginia Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets, SE, will close to traffic and parking "as soon as Monday, June 29."

In both cases, fencing will be installed along the project site's perimeter, plus a temporary sidewalk will be installed between 2nd and 3rd.

Look for traffic to increase on the detour routes along I and/or K Streets in these blocks.

In addition, the recreation area under the Southeast Freeway/I-695 at 2nd Street will not be accessible from the south, which means no walking to and from Garfield Park in that spot until tunnel construction is cleared from that location. (The rec area will still be accessible, but only from the north/Garfield Park side.) There will also be fencing installed along the south side of Garfield Park by the rec area.

There will also be temporary closures of the left lane of Virginia Avenue between 5th and 7th Streets for a few weeks, starting perhaps as early as June 17.

This doesn't mean the start of actual digging or pile driving is nigh in these blocks--there are still apparently utility relocations and "other preparations" to complete before excavation work is to begin.

And when they say "as soon as," they really are doing a bit of ballparking. So if the blocks don't close on the above dates, don't assume that they've changed their minds.

For more about the project, check out my Virginia Avenue Tunnel page or the official web site.

UPDATE: I've said it so many times that I didn't think about mentioning it AGAIN, but I will mention AGAIN that the cross-streets in the zone of the project--3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th--will all remain open, allowing for continued vehicle and pedestrian traffic across Virginia and under the freeway. At some point there will be closures of a number of days to install the wooden planking on the intersections above the tunnel digging, but those streets are not scheduled to close for months and months. And neither is the exit ramp from the freeway to 6th Street, though all cars will have to turn left/north and go under the freeway.

(NO, NOT ON TOP OF THE HISTORIC MAIN PUMPING STATION.)

A PUD application has now been filed with the Zoning Commission for the project, to be design/built by Skanska with architect SmithGroupJJR as a "world-class headquarters that integrates efficient building systems with the [existing O Street Pumping Station] to create a dynamic workplace environment" that would be " a bold, innovative statement on the Anacostia River shoreline that reflects DC Water's mission to provide reliable and cost-effective water and wastewater services."

It would be designed as a LEED Platinum building, with stormwater retention, "heat recover and rejection systems" that will use the residual heat from the sewage that is pumped to Blue Plains, and low-impact development landscaping features by OvS "such as bio-swales, pervious pavements, and native vegetation."

The proposed DC Water HQ, as seen from the Anacostia (left), the west looking east (center), and from the Yards Park looking west (right). Renderings from zoning filings. Click to enlarge; and compare to the current view from the river.

The O Street station would keep right on pumping during and after construction, and the HQ design, which encapsulates the pumping station on the south and east and so removes it from view from the river, will include a four-story 190-foot-long east-west truss that will support the new HQ without bearing on the existing pumping station.

As for the PUD itself, it proposes to rezone the site from W-2 to CG/CR, and to only include 21 parking spaces instead of the mandated 69 (yay, nearby transit!).

It also requests flexibility from public space requirements because the building is "deemed essential to supporting the United States government," and so it must "therefore incorporate certain security measures and access restrictions, which impact operation and design of the new building and surrounding area." Here is DC Water's memo on this security topic.

This new headquarters will consolidate and relocate all of the agency's administrative personnel, and get non-essential types away from its currently overcapacity Blue Plains site.

The zoning filing says that this new building "will demonstrate that DC Water's mission is essential to every living organism," and will also "emphasize DC Water's historic role in serving the DC metropolitan area for over a century by providing scheduled educational programming inside the building."

Forest City's planned movie theater would be one block to the north of this site, with the two planned new residential buildings to its west, and a new "1 1/2 Street" would run just to its west (as seen in the left-most rendering of the group of three above).

This will come before ANC 6D for its support before getting to the Zoning Commission on some as-yet unannounced date in the future.

FRIDAY, JUNE 5:

Friday Night Concert Series - Scott's New Band, Yards Park, 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Free.

Total 200 Bike Ride, Beginning/Ending at Canal Park. Register here, if you dare.

MONDAY, JUNE 8:

ANC 6D Monthly Meeting, 1100th 4th St., SW, 7 pm.

THURSDAY, JUNE 11:

54th Annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game, Nats Park, 7:05 pm. Tickets $10.

Thursday Night Outdoor Movies, "Selma," Canal Park, Sundown. Free.

FRIDAY, JUNE 12:

Truckeroo Food Truck Festival, Half Street Fairgrounds, 11 am - 11 pm. Free.

Friday Night Concert Series - DC Jazz Fest, Yards Park, 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Free.

DC Jazz Fest at the Yards, 2 - 10 pm. Tickets $56.50.

CSX/Virginia Avenue Tunnel "Coffee with Chuck" Monthly Meeting, Courtyard by Marriott, 7:30 - 9 am. Free.

Thursday Night Outdoor Movies, "The Princess Bride," Canal Park, Sundown. Free.

Friday Night Fishing - catch and release fishing at Diamond Teague Park, 5 - 8 pm. Free.

Friday Night Concert Series - Texas Chainsaw Horns, Yards Park, 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Free.

Oneness Yoga Festival, Yards Park, 11 am - 7 pm. Tickets $30, kids free.

Paddle Nights on the Anacostia, Ballpark Boathouse at Diamond Teague Park, 5 pm - 7:30 pm. Free, but registration required.

Thursday Night Outdoor Movies, "Rush Hour," Canal Park, Sundown. Free.

Friday Night Fishing - catch and release fishing at Diamond Teague Park, 5 - 8 pm. Free.

Friday Night Concert Series - Jah Works, Yards Park, 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Free.

Waterfront Church Sunday Summer Funday, Courtyard by Marriott, 4 pm - 6 pm. Free.

There's also the lineup of Fitness in the Front offerings early in the morning or in the evening most days of the week, for those of you who partake in the mysterious activity known as "exercise."

I went into detail on the updated designs a few weeks ago, but the quickie summary is that there will be somewhere between 350 and 445 residential units (including condos!) in two buildings, and as much as 68,000 square feet of retail on two floors. (There could possibly be a small hotel as well, which would bring the residential count to the lower end of the proposed spectrum.) There would also be 231 parking spaces and bike parking in three underground levels, the hole for which, as we all know, has already conveniently been dug.

Both Jair Lynch and project architect Chris Harvey of Hord Coplan Macht talked about how the building is designed to bring the "indoors out, and the outdoors in," with huge windows for retail spaces and with the upper floors designed to take in views not of the surrounding skyline but of the street below, especially as the festive gameday atmosphere unfolds. "We believe it will define the ballpark entertainment district," Lynch said, calling it a "unique destination" for the three million people who visit the ballpark and the neighborhood every year.

The comments from the zoning commissioners were uniformly positive*, with the discussion going through especially zoning-y zoning issues, such as the design of the roof, the status of LEED certification (they're going for Silver, apparently), the lack of affordable housing (short version: this project is expensive!) and the location of a lobby entrance at the corner of Half and the new pedestrian-only Monument Place.

Much of the remaining discussion ended up centering around the streetscape plans, with commissioners agreeing that a curbless street being a wise decision with thousands of people walking through and not watching where they are going, but with DDOT needing to work with Lynch's group to decide exactly how to approach, since as of now DDOT really has no guidelines for such a design.

DDOT also appeared to be putting the kibosh on the idea of "catenary lights" across both ends of Half Street (which has been in the drawings for the site for many years), as well as wanting planned bollards ditched and wanting a different layout for sidewalk trees, since the lack of overhead wires on Half means that there could be a substantial tree canopy if the proper trees are used.

In response to a question from commissioner Robert Miller, who described the project as "very long-awaited and dynamic and exciting," Lynch said that the expectation is to break ground in 2016 and be finished in 2018 (presumably in time for a certain all-star event). Cushing Street would be used as the route for construction vehicles (though work would stop three hours before any Nats game), but Lynch also said that the fact that the excavation is mostly complete "should help tremendously."

With the Office of Planning and DDOT each supporting the plan as long as a few items are addressed, and with ANC 6D having voted to support it as well, there appears to only be the need for some mopping up submissions (renderings from street level for Cushing Street and Monument Place, better roof plans, the fixes for OP, yadda yadda), it sounds as if this project should be voted on favorably, perhaps at the June 29 commission meeting.

My page for this Half Street project gives additional details on the site, as do my previous posts.

And maybe before too much longer we'll see some details of JBG's plans for the other side of the street.

* Or, in the case of Peter May, not actually negative.

"CSX today started the major construction phase of the Virginia Avenue Tunnel Project. The support of excavation work now underway consists of drilling 42-inch holes for steel and concrete pilings that will support a temporary retaining wall necessary to construct the first new permanent tunnel elements. This work is taking place at the west end of the project site in public space near 2nd and H Streets, S.E."

It goes on to say that similar work will get underway at the eastern end of the tunnel near 11th & M SE "within the next few weeks."

As always, to get more information, check out my Virginia Avenue Tunnel page (which probably needs a bit of freshening) or the official VirginiaAvenueTunnel.com web site, where you can also sign up to be on the project mailing list.

And deep in the multitude of documents and words is the "11th Street Bridge Park Funding Limitations Act of 2015," which states that "no funds allocated for the Park may be awarded or disbursed for purposes of construction until at least 50 percent of the total projected construction costs of the project have been raised from private donors."

The act also "prohibits the use of District funds for the purpose of operations or maintenance" of the planned park.

The piers left from the now-demolished downstream 11th Street Bridge span would be used to build this park, running from just east of the Navy Yard over to Anacostia Park, has a $40 million price tag attached to it, according to published reports.

The District has previously committed to providing $14.5 million of the $25 million construction costs, and a fundraising campaign is underway to fund both the $10.5 million construction funding gap and the estimated $15 million in operations funding.

The council will be voting on its proposed budget tomorrow, Tuesday, May 27.

Today, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton released her comments on the study, saying that the private sites "should not be chosen because of the significant negative impacts on District residents, District business owners, and the District economy" and that the Marines "cannot now swoop in and take these prized sites in a city that has almost no land left for development for the benefit of its growing population and businesses."

In comparison, she says, the two sites on federal land "will protect private landowners and lessees in the District while at the same time providing the opportunity for increased economic development at the current Building 20 site" (at 8th and I).

The period for commenting on the EIS ends today, May 26. so if you are desperate to add your voice, I would hope you can submit via the web site until midnight.

My post on the draft EIS is far more detailed than this quickie update, so I suggest reading it for further background.