Is NPS planning to plow the MVT this winter?

Discussed here: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?11335-December-2016-Road-and-Trail-Conditions

NPS has a meeting with WABA and other concerned folks at the BikeArlington offices tomorrow night where they have said that they have a big announcement. We expect it will be snow clearing related.

When you say that the Pentagon does “a VERY good job of clearing” the snow, does that mean that you can ride a bike on the cleared paths? I’ve also noticed the orange poles along the bike paths and assumed that someone has a plan to keep them clear this year. However, I wonder whether it’s really possible to remove ice and snow off a bike path well enough to make for a reasonably comfortable and worry-free ride. I remember trying to commute a time or two last year when the MVT was more or less cleared, and both times I turned back home; between the hidden ice and the patches of uncleared snow, the ride was jarring, treacherous, and not worth the effort.

@kevinal 150835 wrote:

When you say that the Pentagon does “a VERY good job of clearing” the snow, does that mean that you can ride a bike on the cleared paths? I’ve also noticed the orange poles along the bike paths and assumed that someone has a plan to keep them clear this year. However, I wonder whether it’s really possible to remove ice and snow off a bike path well enough to make for a reasonably comfortable and worry-free ride. I remember trying to commute a time or two last year when the MVT was more or less cleared, and both times I turned back home; between the hidden ice and the patches of uncleared snow, the ride was jarring, treacherous, and not worth the effort.

The pentagon grounds crew does an incredible job keeping the trail on its border along 27 plowed and salted. Sometimes there’s so much salt down it’s like riding on loose gravel which is ironically a bit sketchy in itself.
The problem is that their clearing efforts end immediately after the dangerous access road entrance crossings connecting 27 to the north parking lot, leaving all connections between there and the MVT/memorial bridge as untamed wildlands. And then the road snow plows come through and push/dump ice chunks and road debris all over the previously cleared sidewalks and bridge pathways adjacent to the road anyways. I spent a couple years just walking my bike over the worst patches but I don’t bother going that way anymore.

@peterw_diy 150837 wrote:

So, what was the announcement?

Meeting was postponed by the NPS. New date TBA. Stay tuned.

@kevinal 150835 wrote:

However, I wonder whether it’s really possible to remove ice and snow off a bike path well enough to make for a reasonably comfortable and worry-free ride. I remember trying to commute a time or two last year when the MVT was more or less cleared, and both times I turned back home; between the hidden ice and the patches of uncleared snow, the ride was jarring, treacherous, and not worth the effort.

Arlington has been treating and clearing its* priority trails for a few years now. Yes, it is indeed possible. The MVT has not been cleared by human power, so you must have picked days where Mother Nature cleared some, but not all of the trail.

*Arlington’s priority trails are the Custis (which includes the W&OD from where the rest of the Custis peels off to the County line), Four Mile Run, Bluemont and 110 Trail (by the Cemetery). Arlington has a few other trails that they don’t clear (e.g. Rock Spring, Key Blvd), but they have not been allowed to clear on the rest of the W&OD or on the MVT.