On Monday (May 7),
DDOT is having a media briefing to announce that construction has begun on the
Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. This is the first phase, and so doesn't actually include the planned portion of the trail through Near Southeast (from the 11th Street Bridges to the Frederick Douglass Bridge)--according to the AWC page and a meeting AWC held a few weeks back, I believe what's now being constructed is Phase I, the trail on the west side of the Anacostia from the Navy Yard to the National Arboretum. Phase 2 will be on the east side of the river, from Poplar Point to Pennsylvania Avenue, and Phase 3 (the Near Southeast portion) is probably looking at a 2010 date (when the Waterfront Park at
the Yards is completed, and they can build the pedestrian bridge to link that park to
Diamond Teague Park and
Florida Rock.
UPDATE, May 7: A
post-briefing press release says that the section of the Riverwalk now under construction is a two-mile stretch that will run from the
Navy Yard east to Benning Road. There's also a link to a
fact sheet on the trail (albeit from June 2006) that has a map of the planned trail and other information. And here's
a WTOP piece on the new section.