WASHINGTON — With construction underway on the Memorial Bridge, crossing it already comes with challenges, and the arrival of several potholes have recently made the drive a much bumpier one.
A listener’s news tip alerted WTOP to the large potholes that plagued Lincoln and Memorial circles.
“It is bad enough that drivers are funneled into three ridiculously narrow lanes during the bridge construction, but now also have to endure potholes that are impossible to miss,” the unidentified listener wrote.
The listener was right: Several of the holes stretched across travel lanes and put the shocks on cars that encountered them to the test.
Yesterday, I also reached out to DC to see if the city may be willing to help here. While reporting on the story today, @DDOTDC crews showed up and stepped in to make for a smoother ride on the DC side. @WTOP pic.twitter.com/vQWXtuaBHd
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) January 4, 2019
WTOP reached out to the National Park Service, and spokesman Mike Litterst said they are monitoring the potholes and doing emergency repairs for large potholes.
The partial government shutdown doesn’t impact maintenance on park service-maintained roads, and Litterst said crews will be out to repair the holes on both circles this weekend.
“Repairing the potholes will require closing the travel lane, so we will do the work on the weekend to cause the least disruption to traffic,” Litterst said in an email to WTOP.
On the D.C. side of the bridge, drivers have already seen improvements in the roadway, but they come not from the park service but, instead, D.C.’s Department of Transportation.
On Thursday, WTOP reached out to DDOT about the pothole problem and asked if the city would be willing to step in and help drivers if the problem persisted. On Friday, DDOT showed up to Lincoln Circle and repaired the potholes on the D.C. side of the bridge.
