Photo by Alan Cordova.

The 2014 Folklife Festival is well underway on the National Mall, but up until a couple weeks ago, the future of it was uncertain.

New regulations implemented by the National Park Service have made it harder for events to take place on the National Mall. Last year, the Post reported that a new irrigation system was installed to help preserve the vitality of the Mall, which in turn made it harder for events to take place.

But the group pushing Congress to build a parking garage underneath the National Mall has introduced new plans that include new cisterns that would solve the irrigation problem, along with a long-term solution for flood control.

Last October, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced an amendment to create a report on the National Mall Underground project—a joint proposal between the National Coalition to Save Our Mall and philanthropist Albert H. Small—which, originally, included plans for multi-purpose car and tour bus parking garage and flood control. The three-level parking garage and flood control system is still a part of the plan, but since then, a comprehensive irrigation system, along with a Mall visitor center has been added to the proposal.

While Norton, along with Judy Scott Feldman, chair of the Coalition, was enthusiastic about the project, the biggest hurdle they faced was finding Congressional support to move ahead with the project. It’s nearly nine months later, and they’re still looking for the Congressional support to make the project happen.

Via National Mall Underground.

Arthur Cotton Moore, the architect who designed the plans for the underground facility, tells DCist that construction of the project would take “under two years,” and that the proposed plan would cost around $200 million. The problem, Feldman tells DCist, is that this would have to be a public/private partnership, since they’re a private group trying to do a public service on Federal land with private money.

Currently, the National Mall Underground has an exhibition space near Farragut Square, where pictures of the aftermath of torrential storms in 2006 that left much of the Mall flooded hang. Those storms caused millions of dollars in damage to several Federal buildings, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Moore says his design is a long-term solution to flooding on the National Mall. “There’s a 34 million gallon floodwater reservoir, along with cisterns to gather storm water for irrigation,” in his plan, he says.

At a press conference, Berman says that the latest design concept is “the culmination of 15 months of study, and a number of engineering, traffic, and parking studies.” The board says they’ve had “over 200 meetings” with members of Congress, the Obama Administration, and Federal and city agencies. And, while they have support from Norton and former D.C. mayor and current head of Federal City Council Anthony Williams, they’re still urging Congress to form a commission or task force to take the proposal to the next phase: plans to build it.

Jay Brodie, a board member for the National Mall Underground proposal, says that there’s a “pressure of time” to get this project underway. “This isn’t a matter of if there’s going to be another devastating flood like the 2006 storm, it’s a matter of when.”