District officials will break ground Saturday on the Marvin Gaye Park walking and bicycling trail — part of an $11 million overhaul of the long troubled site previously known as “needle park.”
The 1.6-mile trail, whose name was changed from Watts Branch Park earlier this year to honor the late R&B singer and D.C. native, was first constructed in 1978, but had fallen into disrepair in recent years.
The D.C. Department of Transportation will spend $3.1 million to reconstruct the trail, improve safety and lighting and build two new bridges, said DDOT spokesman Erik Linden. Once completed, the trail will be the longest in a city-managed trail.
A group of thousands of citizen activists spent the past five years cleaning the park in hopes of turning it into Ward 7’s equivalent of Rock Creek Park. The volunteer group pulled more than 2 million pounds of trash, 6,000 hypodermic needles and 78 abandoned cars from the park.
The group,Washington Parks and People, also removed more than 20,000 exotic invasive plants, planted 1,200 native trees and hundreds of flowers and launched an aggressive arts and education campaign including the opening of the Marvin Gaye Amphitheater.
Their effort also spurred the closing of a nearby methadone clinic, turned the infamous Crystal Lounge into a community center and opened the Heritage Park Farm Stand, the first open air farm market at the park.
