Route 50/10th Street/Courthouse Rd Bridge Project

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  • May 28, 2014 at 2:42 pm #1002597
    PotomacCyclist
    Participant

    The latest update from April 25 also says that the entire project is expected to be complete by early July. While there might be some minor delays, I would think that if they are announcing a completion date just a few months away, that they are fairly confident about holding to that new date.

    Then again, it’s a large construction project, so no deadline is ever solid.

    http://www.virginiadot.org/newsroom/northern_virginia/2014/route_50_interchange_update72777.asp

    ARLnow also had an update on April 15 but it largely repeats the info from the April 25 announcement.

    http://www.arlnow.com/2014/04/15/rt-5010th-streetcourthouse-road-ramps-to-open-this-month/

    May 28, 2014 at 2:43 pm #1002598
    chris_s
    Participant

    This is what Arlington’s point of contact told me back on may 5th:

    VDOT is really making a lot of progress with the Arlington Blvd/Courthouse Road/10th Street Interchange project. The portion of the trail between 10th Street and Courthouse Road (on the north side of Arlington Blvd) is complete minus a missing handrail and should be open soon. The portion of the trail under Courthouse Road will not be completed until the end of May when the new ramp from WB Arlington Blvd onto Courthouse Road is reopened. Additionally, the portion of the trail from the Courthouse Road Bridge to Rolfe Street should also be completed in late May.

    Finally, the new trail located on the south side of Arlington Blvd from N. Pershing Drive to Rolfe/Queen Street should be completed in July. Progress on this trail has been slow but I am still hopeful VDOT will meet their mid-2014 deadline.

    Not sure if/how the timeline has shifted in the last few weeks.

    May 28, 2014 at 6:47 pm #1002653
    Brendan von Buckingham
    Participant

    When I don’t ride in, I bus in and get a front row seat as we pass the construction. Last week they were using giant augers to drill what I presume were pier footers for the bed of the trail or retaining wall to hold back the soil from Ft. Myer. I’m not an expert, but completion by end of July is going to be ambitious.

    September 2, 2014 at 1:30 pm #1008963
    Brendan von Buckingham
    Participant

    Back from Labor Day and I biked to work on this trail today. Finished enough for me.

    Likes
    + five minutes better than my regular 33 minute commute from Ballston via Clarendon Blvd/Courthouse/Rhodes Street.
    + decent entry from Pershing eastbound with a wide curb cut level and smooth with the road
    + can finally read the silver historic marker. It’s for a Civil War fortification called Ft. Cass. Can we call this new section of trail the Ft. Cass trail? Pretty please?
    + long sight line to the 4-way stop at the end of trail segment, so there’s plenty of time to pick your spot to leave the trail and enter the Arlington Boulevard access road roadway.

    Dislikes
    – first long down hill is notable and can give you lots of speed. It ends with a slightly blind curve to the right, though. The curve is very close to the edge of the highway without any sort of barrier, so there’s little room for error without ending up in the highway.
    – just before this no-margin curve is a soil-drainage washout across the trail. Wet and silty.
    – merging with traffic backed up from the 4-way stop at Rhodes/Queen & Arlington Blvd access road is narrow. So although you have a lot of time to pick your spot, if you don’t hit it right, you end up on the regular sidewalk until the 4-way stop. I don’t like riding regular sidewalks in deference to pedestrians, but that’s a matter of taste.
    – at this merge point, where a cyclist should be looking left to merge into the roadway at speed, there is a blind intersection on the right where the sidewalk on the west side of Rolfe Street meets the trail.

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