Business Group Gets C&O Canal Update

Alison Greenberg, executive director of Georgetown Heritage, was welcomed by Georgetown Business Association President Sonya Bernhardt and GBA members at the business group’s monthly reception May 17.

Greenberg, whose nonprofit focuses on historic preservation, reported on the continuing work on the C&O Canal, which Bernhardt called one of Georgetown’s crown jewels. Reconstruction work at Lock 3 between Thomas Jefferson and 30th Streets and masonry work at Lock 4 makes for a busy and noisy worksite.

While the National Park Service owns and controls the canal and its towpath, Georgetown Heritage works with the federal agency to coordinate other partners in the canal’s revitalization, such as the designers of New York’s High Line — James Corner Field Operations — who will rework the landscaping along the towpath.

Greenberg, who joked that she is able to tell people her father worked on the canal (well, his office was at Canal Square across from the reception, at il Canale restaurant), laid out the next steps. Right now, three things are happening at once: lock reconstruction, building a canal boat and developing a master plan. The plan itself will run about $1 million, as will the new boat. Work on the canal walls and locks will cost about $6 million; this part should be completed by early summer 2018.

The next Georgetown Heritage meeting on the canal and its future will be June 14.