MVT at Humpback and 14th St Bridge – Fencing

Followed up with a call to the GWMP offices (703-419-6400). The lady I spoke with said maintenance issues emails to the superintendent regularly get routed to them but in the absence of that, she would ask the maintenance leader to check it out. On my ride home, the orange fence had been replaced, the debris appeared to have been removed and the snow fence at the Humpback seemed to have been secured.

I’ll check it out tomorrow.

It seems that the fencing along the 14th Street Bridge trail are giving the slope time to recover. Peds and cyclists were heading down the slope at the end of the abutment. That said, I’d think that a permanent solution could have been designed and implemented by now.

In a past life as a facilities engineer, I planted barberry bushes to deny access to peds. The thorns in the bushes performed as intended and nobody cut through those areas. On the slope, that might be a plan.

It might make sense for me to add the NPS GWMP number to my address book as the debris may continue to pile up.

AM 19 Apr – Response from the NPS

“I appreciate you alerting us to the fence falling down, and we will follow up by either fixing the current fence or replacing it. I think we still need some kind of fencing in that location.

Thanks!

Jon G. James
Acting Park Superintendent”