WASHINGTON — A water main break in Northwest D.C. is causing blocked, icy roads in one of D.C.’s busiest intersections Friday.
With frigid temperatures, an 8-inch water main ruptured in Foggy Bottom under 27th Street and caused water to pour down onto 27th Street Northwest, Virginia Avenue Northwest and the Rock Creek Parkway. A day after snow hit the D.C. region, the crews and plows came out again, working to scrape up the ice that formed from the water that poured downhill onto Virginia Avenue.
Friday evening, Jerry Booth in the WTOP Traffic Center explained that Rock Creek Parkway, Virginia Avenue and K Street are open. That’s the good news; here’s the bad news:
- Drivers on neither K Street nor Virginia Avenue can get onto the Potomac Freeway, which connects to I-66;
- Traffic coming off the Potomac Freeway must turn right onto 27th Street to get to K Street;
- The southbound turn from K Street onto 27th Street is blocked;
- There’s not way to turn from Virginia Avenue onto 27th Street, and
- There’s no access from K Street to the Rock Creek Parkway via 27th Street.
D.C. Water said 140 water main breaks have occurred since the start of the winter.
Below is a map of the area of the incident.
WTOP’s Dave Dildine and Jennifer Ortiz contributed to this report.
