The Dupont Deckover Has Its Concrete. Its Chairs Wait on a Contract.

What is the big round opening in the middle of the new deck over Connecticut Avenue?

It's the tunnel's ventilation vent, 50 feet across. A concrete barrier with a mounted rail runs around it. The deck can't be solid from edge to edge because traffic still runs through the underpass below and needs air. DDOT explained this in its October 14 construction update, which also reported that crews had finished the fifth and final concrete pour the Friday before.

The structure over the underpass is finished. What it becomes for the neighborhood now depends less on concrete trucks and more on who gets to set out chairs, book a band, and sweep the pavers afterward. The plaza's furniture and programming are waiting on a management agreement, and the businesses around its edges are getting through one more season of sidewalk work while they wait.

The deck went up faster than the paperwork

Construction on the Connecticut Avenue Streetscape and Deckover started June 23, 2025, and the deckover detours began that September. By late July of this year, all 49 girders were in place ahead of schedule, and DDOT said the project had passed its halfway point. The concrete went in over five spans across several overnight pours in September and October. More than 20 trucks moved in and out on pour nights, and a Bidwell machine ran back and forth across the span to level the surface.

That pace is why ANC 2B wrote to DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum in August. The commission's letter on the plaza's management agreement put the issue plainly:

"As completion of the Dupont Circle Deckover Plaza is ahead of schedule, it is critical that a Management Agreement for the plaza be finalized as soon as possible. With an Agreement in place, planning and acquisition of furnishings, appointments, and developing programming and activities for the Plaza may commence."

DDOT's own published target hasn't moved. As of its September 17 update, the project was on schedule for completion in early summer 2027, subject to weather and unforeseen circumstances. That leaves a window of several months for the furniture and event calendar to be lined up before the barriers come down.

What still has to happen on the deck itself

The October updates lay out the order of work from here:

1. Pavers go down on top of the new concrete.
2. Crews rebuild the service lane and sidewalk in the 1500 block, inside the deckover and plaza area, starting on the west side. The October 14 update estimated another four to five weeks for this phase.
3. On the east side, work in the 1600 block moves north toward R Street and into the intersection, where new traffic signals and sidewalk improvements are planned.
4. Landscaping along the corridor goes in later this fall and in spring 2027.

When it's finished, DDOT describes a public plaza between the Circle and Q Street, with a pedestrian crossing joining the two sides of Connecticut Avenue while traffic keeps running underneath. The April 2025 design presentation shows a curbless surface with a central crossing, a bench, bike racks, a raised planter, a tree, a bus shelter and precast boulders. It's a short list, and anything more the plaza might hold has to be brought in and managed by someone.

The broader streetscape also adds protected bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue from Q Street north. They connect to the existing lanes on Columbia Road and R Street and to planned lanes on 20th Street.

A closed street a block away shows the model

ANC 2B voted 8-0 at its August 19 meeting to endorse a management agreement between DDOT and the Dupont Circle BID for maintaining and programming the plaza. The letter calls the BID "the logical choice." It notes the BID was established in 2018, has an unrestricted operating budget of $1.1 million, and already handles the Holiday Market, entertainment in the Circle, and vendor pop-ups along P Street.

The commission's list of ideas for the plaza is specific. On the equipment side, it names portable seating, umbrellas and planters. For programming, it lists musical performances, movies, art, vintage markets, a chocolate festival, an expanded Holiday Festival and "block parties." DDOT's own project page mentions a farmers market, outdoor movies, music, plays and cultural events as possible special-event uses. These are proposals for now. Still, they suggest what the space is meant to be: a flexible paved room with movable furniture, filled event by event.

The best preview of that model is a block away, on the same kind of surface. Starting Thursday, November 12, the DC Holiday Market takes over a closed section of New Hampshire Avenue NW between Q Street and the Circle. Diverse Markets Management produces the market, which will feature more than 35 small businesses selling artisan goods, boutique brands and holiday gifts. In a recent piece from The Wash, Jason Goldman, the BID's marketing and events manager, counts the market among the BID's seasonal lineup and describes the approach this way: "you want to keep a good thing rolling, and if it's not broken, to not fix it."

A closed street with vendors and a stage-ready calendar is close to what the ANC letter describes for the deck. This season shows how that works on New Hampshire Avenue before anything comparable is tried on the new plaza.

Around the construction zone through December

Holiday Market hours are noon to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Details for the Art Walk are on the BID's site, and the FRESHFARM market page has the current layout. DDOT has worked around the Sunday market all year. In July, it reopened the service lane by the triangle park on weekends so market traffic could get through.

Walking routes along Connecticut will keep shifting. In the 1600 block, pedestrian access was moved into a protected walkway along the outer edge of the street, with ramps up to storefronts, and DDOT says all businesses stay open throughout the project. Farther north, the Geneva residential conversion is under construction in the 1800 block, and some of the detours there come from that project.

The edges of the plaza have carried the cost

A plaza needs open storefronts around it, and the storefronts along this stretch have been under strain. In May 2026, the Dupont Circle BID told 7News that some businesses had seen foot traffic fall 50 to 60 percent. Owners pointed to barriers, torn-up sidewalks, lost parking, and trouble with deliveries and pickups. That April, WTOP reported that the BID had asked the D.C. Council for an additional $2 million in grants for affected businesses.

Two spots on these blocks have closed since then. PoPville reported in early July that Taïm at 1514 Connecticut had closed. Pure Green at 1630 Connecticut, at R Street, closed August 16 and said it planned to reopen in the neighborhood.

Relief arrived in rounds. The BID's Streetscape Relief Fund II offered eligible businesses on both sides of the 1500 and 1600 blocks up to $10,000 for ongoing expenses, with applications due July 27. A third round, billed as the final opportunity, closed September 28, with payments targeted for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, which runs October through December.

Some of the finished pieces are already working for the businesses near them. New pavers at R Street let Sette Osteria put its outdoor tables and chairs back out in June. In the 1600 block, Comfort Shoes sits on a stretch of sidewalk DDOT called nearly complete in July. Kramers, at 1517 Connecticut, faces the deck directly. It marked 50 years in business with a community day set for October 24. The plan, as the Washington Blade described it, included custom book stamping, an Aslin beer tasting, a DuPont Little Flea vintage pop-up, and 20 percent of that day's bookstore sales going to Everybody Wins DC. In July, DDOT named Kramers and Bibibop among the retailers looking forward to the day the plaza opens.

The project team's October 7 update made the same point in its own way, counting down to Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa and suggesting that holiday shopping at businesses surrounded by construction is a good way to support the neighborhood. Questions about the work go to the project inbox at [email protected].

We've watched Connecticut Avenue change block by block for more than a year, and we're glad to talk through what the finished plaza and bike lanes could mean for the buildings around them. If you live near the deck and want to know how the streetscape work shows up in buyer conversations, Jeanne Phil Meg is happy to have that conversation over coffee on the Circle.