We got a couple of breathless tips today regarding this report by WUSA9, quite broadly titled “DC’s Streetcar Project Halted For Now,” in which the Anacostia streetcar line was said to be heading “into mothballs.” Well, that’s news to us! The story made a big deal about a temporary halt in construction on the two-year old project, making sure to mention the “unfinished rails jutted into weeds.”

But once you take a deep breath and actually read the story, there’s really not that much to fret about. The stoppage in work is because the contract for the first phase of the construction has expired. DDOT simply hasn’t selected a contractor to conduct the second half of the work, and have decided instead to investigate ways in which the construction could be more cost-effective, hoping to take advantage of economic factors which might drive the cost of the second phase lower. In fact, DDOT spokesperson John Lisle confirmed to WUSA9 in the report that the pilot program was still scheduled to begin in 2012, which squares with the timeline we’ve seen for this particular section of the streetcar plan.

After all, intermittent delays are the peanut butter to the D.C. streetcar plan’s jelly — but they hardly mean that the whole shebang is dead in the water.