At the bridge over the 66W Glebe Road exit on the Custis (eastbound – climb, westbound – descent), there are new asphalt seams on either end of the bridge to smooth the lip of the concrete. Much nicer not having to hop over them.
Does Arlington have a “trail sweeper” machine (like a road cleaner machine?)
The pea-gravel/loose gravel that collects on parts of 4MRT in Barcroft Park is a skid-out waiting to happen. I opened a ticket about 2 very large spreads of pea-gravel recently… they cleared one, but not the other (and it was located about 6 feet away from the gravel they cleared!)
I’m probably going to buy my own stiff-bristle “shop floor” broom — because there are 2 bends in this trail that routinely collect gravel, and both are quite close to home so I could zip out there and clear it myself when the gravel warranted, rather than go through the hit-or-miss chances with a new ticket every time.
But I did wonder if they had a machine to do it, or if they sent a worker out — with a stiff broom.
I believe the snow clearing Arlington County Bobcat has a front rotating brush attachment, but I haven’t seen the small size street sweepers like what was used by FES in Frankfurt to keep the sidewalks clear of debris.
Well, I went ahead and ordered a stiff-bristle broom so I can tackle pea-gravel on the trail when I find it.
After Arl. closed my original trail ticket about the gravel (only clearing 1 of the 3 reported gravel patches along the trail) I opened 2 new, individual tickets (one per remaining patch of gravel.)
This morning, one of those patches was cleared, which was great.
But the other one still wasn’t. (ie, on same trail, perhaps 1/3 mile away.)
We’ll see if I get to try out my broom tomorrow!
Well, I went ahead and ordered a stiff-bristle broom so I can tackle pea-gravel on the trail when I find it.
After Arl. closed my original trail ticket about the gravel (only clearing 1 of the 3 reported gravel patches along the trail) I opened 2 new, individual tickets (one per remaining patch of gravel.)
This morning, one of those patches was cleared, which was great.
But the other one still wasn’t. (ie, on same trail, perhaps 1/3 mile away.)
We’ll see if I get to try out my broom tomorrow!
If this is a regularly reoccurring problem, I’d email kstalica arlingtonva.us and request that ArlCo work this into regular maintenance — and maybe try to find the source of the problem and prevent it entirely…
I did email him, after the first ticket was closed (but not all the gravel I’d reported was cleared.) I’ll keep an eye out — the worst patch is at the branch off 4MRT to cross the “fjord” bridge over to the baseball fields — there is pea gravel adjacent to the trail (perhaps in-fill?) and I wouldn’t be surprised if the powerful storms swept it onto the trail…
Just to close the loop… (Ooops, lost track that this wasn’t a Trail Conditions thread, when I interjected about gravel on 4MRT!)
My stiff broom arrived today and I swept up 5 areas of 4MRT within the Barcroft Park zone.
Some examples! Starting out on the original, worst patch — pea gravel covered the whole width of the trail here.
(There’s actually a painted yellow lane-divider marking, hidden under this gravel!)
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Halfway through… The sandy colored patch is the cleared section so far – the patch on the right is a surprisingly thick layer of gravel to be swept!
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Complete!
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The dip-and-bend in the trail, closer to Geo. Mason end. Stream-side lane was largely covered by encroaching gravel and debris.
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