Eastern Market is bustling along as always as Capitol Hill’s place for fresh food shopping, schmoozing and art, but reconstruction of the fire-gutted original 1873 building seemed stalled and unlikely to meet the planned June completion date.
In home remodelling, medicine, or automotive work, once you get under the hood you find problems you didn’t expect. Historic restoration is no different. Deteriorated flooring, corroded steel beams, and weakened brick arches slowed progress, Bill Rice of DC’s Office of Property Management told Michael Neibauer of The Examiner.
OPM has extended construction hours so market business can blossom in the spring. Workmen will be on the job from 3:30 PM to midnight weekdays, 6 AM to 3:30 PM Saturdays (never on Sundays) until May.
Noise shouldn’t be a problem. Work is almost all in the building’s interior, and the former apartment building across the street is being redeveloped for commercial use.
Councilman Tommy Wells says he will check up on construction noise (by bicycle, not doubt). If he needs backup, we can supervise from the bar at Tunnicliff’s.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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