June 2022 Road and Trail Conditions

Much-needed repairs to the Theodore Roosevelt bridge, including the wider sidewalk deck we have been lobbying for, are moving forward: https://www.arlnow.com/2022/06/01/roosevelt-bridge-rehab-expected-to-bring-new-paint-job-and-wider-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR32arzIxs98IEXVs0YnlCDq1gHvmNsYcEQepjG3brpxsqLqt2dBYuCHnc8

@Starduster 219246 wrote:

“Mommy, what’s a Belvedere?”

It’s an old Plymouth. Perhaps there is one abandoned on the trail.

@arlcxrider 219254 wrote:

The “Belvedere” was intended to be the monumental termination of Constitution Ave. The TR Bridge and its gawdawful tangle of ramps turned it into a vestigial oddity.

@Starduster 219223 wrote:

Much-needed repairs to the Theodore Roosevelt bridge, including the wider sidewalk deck we have been lobbying for, are moving forward: https://www.arlnow.com/2022/06/01/roosevelt-bridge-rehab-expected-to-bring-new-paint-job-and-wider-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR32arzIxs98IEXVs0YnlCDq1gHvmNsYcEQepjG3brpxsqLqt2dBYuCHnc8

Additional detail from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/02/roosevelt-bridge-updates/

@Starduster 219266 wrote:

This would make a hell of a Jeopardy question. I knew of its past- look on a Google map and you will see the lineup of trees planted along the original route. Now I must find a photo of this spot *before* it was forever changed by the freeway ramps of the TR Bridge.

Here is a picture taken during construction. You can clearly see the Belvedere and the trees lining Constituion Avenue.

@arlcxrider 219268 wrote:

The TR Bridge was a planning calamity not easily undone.

Just think how much easier it would be to navigate if they’d just connected up the street grids instead of building expressways to nowhere.

An update from my fall coming home from AFCC last weekend. I finally went back to the “scene of the crime” and did some accident reconstruction. This was a bus stop on S. Clark St, at 23rd St. S., Crystal City, Arlington. On any other day, I would be taking a lane on this street. I didn’t on Saturday because race course fencing was still up, and I was determined to find a detour. Which I paid for. I had evidence- chalky concrete dust well up the sidewall. [ATTACH=CONFIG]29060[/ATTACH] Instead of riding the curb edge [ATTACH=CONFIG]29061[/ATTACH] I tiptoed around the back side of all the sign structures. [ATTACH=CONFIG]29062[/ATTACH] I thought this bit of concrete did me in, [ATTACH=CONFIG]29063[/ATTACH] but look at the drop-off from concrete to grass. I did not see this in time. [ATTACH=CONFIG]29064[/ATTACH] To be fair, this hazard can happen anywhere. Be safe, all!