Blocked Trail at Lynn Street Death Zone?!

[eminva]

Hello —

When I came in this morning, the trail was closed between Fort Myer Drive and Lynn Street. There was a utility truck parked completely blocking the trail about even with the Bike Counter. There were small signs at either end of the block indicating “road closed,” but no indication of how to get around the obstruction.

There were a ton of cyclists coming through as I did. I salmoned on Lee Highway, as did a few others. Some detoured into the grass on the other side of the trail.

Sorry I didn’t get a photo, but what a week to choose for utility work in that segment! Couldn’t have chosen a worse time. If it was emergency work, I would redirect my rant to better signage for a detour (and more thought to an appropriate detour), given the huge number of novice cyclists passing through there this week.

Liz

Topic

[ShawnoftheDread]

They were there late Friday morning too.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bentbike33]

All was clear today at ~6:55am when I went through.

[dasgeh]

I saw it too. I was particularly troubled by the fact that they blocked the entire sidewalk, so there was nowhere to wait to cross the street (not to mention the lack of detour signs, signs warning trail users as they approached, or signs warning cars that there would be more peds/bikes crossing Lee). ArlCo has been emailed.

[rcannon100]

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Happy Bike to Work Week

[DrP]

To be fair, this is kind of how the county treats cars too. With the wind storm about a month or so ago, a tree came down along Washington Blvd and they closed the road from about 7:30am until nearly 9pm for ~7blocks. No detour signs, at least not at the cross streets, and there were not signs at the block before for the cross streets (a neighbor talked some cones out of a county worker and put up a hand made sign to at least stop everyone from speeding down the road and then having to do a U-turn at the end of the road when they couldn’t get to Washington Blvd). Some may also recall my rants about people driving and biking across my lawn when similar signs have gone up on my block.

[scoot]

It must vary case by case. The southbound lane on N Quincy was closed when I rode through on Saturday, but there was a very well-marked detour (18th to Quebec to 17th).

The adjacent road is extremely overbuilt along the Custis, so a traffic lane should be blocked instead of a heavily used sidewalk trail. Closing one lane of westbound Lee Hwy would have negligible impact on drivers, since most of them turn right at IOD anyway.

[Steve O]

Could they have parked in a lane on the street to do this work?
On Lynn, they would have occupied 20% of the northbound lanes; on Lee Hwy, they would have blocked 33% of the westbound lanes.
On the Custis Trail, they blocked 100% of the lanes in both directions.

[Tim Kelley]

@rcannon100 139669 wrote:

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Happy Bike to Work Week

[Steve O]

I also emailed the county and got this response:

On it, just found out, truck still there (we see it on our camera).
Thx!

[Tim Kelley]

A top man reported back, “I just went out there and spoke with the crew. They are locating underground utilities for Dominion Power. It is related to the Rosslyn Circle/Esplanade project that the County is finishing design on.

They have been shut down ( I am not sure exactly by who) and are leaving the trail, but will need to come back to finish their work. We are going to ask that they set up a detour for the trail through the grass area when they return to finish their work.”

[dasgeh]

So I heard something slightly different: this was work under a VDOT permit, and they are done. People are now confirming that VDOT permits on trails will require ped/bike MOTs in the future.

[bentbike33]

@Tim Kelley 139684 wrote:

“We are going to ask that they set up a detour for the trail through the grass area when they return to finish their work.”

And the truck can’t park on the grass because…?

It can’t possibly be that the truck would cause more damage than the several hundred cyclists and pedestrians that would be diverted onto the grass while the truck blocks the trail.

[DrP]

@bentbike33 139696 wrote:

And the truck can’t park on the grass because…?

It can’t possibly be that the truck would cause more damage than the several hundred cyclists and pedestrians that would be diverted onto the grass while the truck blocks the trail.

Better yet, have the truck arrive with boards to drive on. A week ago Saturday, with the ground quite wet, there was a lift being used on a building across from the Falls Church Farmer’s Market. The quite large and heavy vehicle needed to be on the lawn to access the outside of the building. They had large boards down on the grass and drove the vehicle on the boards. When they needed to move the vehicle, someone laid down more boards, ran to the back and pulled up the boards it rolled off and ran to the front to lay them down (it was not moving quickly). The ground was not all torn up in the process. I was amazed that they did this.

So, the truck and staff should be able to do the same and not damage the grass.

[dasgeh]

@bentbike33 139696 wrote:

And the truck can’t park on the grass because…?

I think the work was on the trail. Something about locating utilities.

[rcannon100]

@bentbike33 139696 wrote:

And the truck can’t park on the grass because…?

It can’t possibly be that the truck would cause more damage than the several hundred cyclists and pedestrians that would be diverted onto the grass while the truck blocks the trail.

There was a man hole behind the truck in the sidewalk. The man hole was open and there was lots of equipment around (I believe based on my fly by memory which is almost assuredly….. squirrel!)

[Author]

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