DDOT and Pepco outline Feeder 467 undergrounding plan in Ward 3; residents press on tree impacts and outages

District Department of Transportation officials and Pepco staff on a virtual open house described a plan to underground primary electric lines along Feeder 467 in Ward 3 (Chevy Chase), outlined construction impacts and notifications, and answered residents’ questions about trees, equipment placement and outages.

Ronald Williams, District Department of Transportation DC Plug program manager, said Feeder 467 runs roughly 2.8 miles through Ward 3 and showed the feeder’s boundaries, noting the work will be a civil‑construction project followed by a separate electrical phase. "It is in Ward 3, which is the Chevy Chase neighborhood," Williams said during the presentation.

Raeesha Quarry, who leads the DC Plug community outreach team, told residents preconstruction activities such as test pitting may already occur and that civil construction is expected to begin next month. "Civil construction will ... continue throughout I mean, for about 12 months for this project," Quarry said, and she urged residents to sign up on the Feeder 467 page at www.dcpluginfo.com and to use questions@dcpluginfo.com or the hotline at +1 (844) 758‑4146 for updates and door‑hanger notifications.

Presenters walked through the construction sequence—saw cutting, trench excavation, conduit installation, concrete encasement, backfill, temporary steel plates for traffic, and final resurfacing—and said typical restoration will cover an approximately 11‑foot lane over the trench rather than full‑street repaving unless the trench requires greater coverage. Williams emphasized this is a utility project, not a street repaving project.

On tree impacts, the meeting included repeated resident concern that frequent street trees and root zones along 39th Street make avoidance difficult. David, the resident engineer assigned to the feeder, said the project team will "try to avoid, killing or removing, any trees" and described coordination with DDOT and arborists; he added the team will attempt to replant where removal is necessary. A Pepco representative noted the program has installed many feeders previously with "haven't had significant issues" to date.

Residents also asked about electromagnetic fields and why transformer enclosures sometimes sit on sidewalks or tree boxes rather than in the street. Marcus Gill of Pepco said the company expects "no human health risks" from the buried equipment and explained that sidewalk placement eases maintenance access and avoids closing entire streets for repairs.

Pepco and DDOT staff said civil construction does not require scheduled power outages; outages occur during the later electrical phase, when crews switch service from overhead to underground equipment. Staff said residents will receive notifications and that the electrical turnover outages are typically planned within a 1–4 hour window.

Project benefits presented emphasized resiliency: undergrounding the primary feeder reduces the number of customers affected by feeder failures. Presenters contrasted a feeder outage affecting roughly 1,000 customers with secondary failures affecting a much smaller group and said selection of vulnerable feeders followed recommendations from a post‑2012 reliability review.

The outreach team reiterated how residents can stay informed: sign up on the Feeder 467 page at www.dcpluginfo.com, use questions@dcpluginfo.com, or call the 24‑hour hotline at +1 (844) 758‑4146. Staff said door‑hanger notifications will be posted 30, 15 and 7 days before affected work and that neighborhood residents will be informed before transformer enclosures are installed near homes.

The open house concluded with staff thanking attendees and reminding them the presentation slides and a recording will be available on the DC Plug website.