Custis Trail connector at Fairfax Drive & Glebe Road

[Tim Kelley]

From my Inbox:

Several County staff members met today with the foreman from Clark Construction at the Marymount University building site (Fairfax Drive & N. Glebe Road in Ballston) to discuss the current conditions on the Custis Trail connector path.

Clark is working to expedite completion of the new pavement for the connection between the Custis Trail and N. Wakefield Street. They expect to have the work done by next Wednesday, May 24th but may be able to partially open the route by this weekend. Unfortunately they will not have the job completed before this Friday’s Bike to Work Day.

County staff are requiring Clark to make several improvements to existing conditions ASAP. Clark will sign a detour around the site that uses N. Wakefield Street, and existing path near the 4601 Fairfax Drive office building and the asphalt trail near the Ballston beaver pond. The detour is to be in place this Wednesday and to be removed in about a week when the Custis Trail connector is ready to be reopened. The portion of the trail connector between N. Wakefield Street and Glebe Road will be made safer and more accessible through removal of some temporary obstructions and smoothing out of the transitions with asphalt patching. Those measures are expected to be implemented within 24 hours. In the meantime we caution trail users to be careful of ongoing construction activities when traveling in the area.

County staff will continue to check on the site at least once daily and follow up on correcting any problems that persist or arise.

Topic

[mstone]

@Steve O 160273 wrote:

At 3:03 PM I received this email [press them to follow the rules]

What the hell is this “press them” stuff? Fine them and shut them down if they can’t provide for public safety.

[dbb]

Looking at the County’s tree preservation standards, trees seem to be treated better than peds and cyclists

https://arlingtonva.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2016/09/AppendixF.pdf

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14787[/ATTACH]

Not only is a fence required to protect the trees, there is a county phone number to report violations.

Might be something that could be adopted to protect things other than trees, like you or me!

For the record, I like trees but I like me as much.

[Steve O]

This is still a fail. County put up 3 signs total, one of which is not even placed where it will be encountered from the previous one. This is barely an improvement.

Sent from my SM-G360T1 using Tapatalk

[eminva]

@Steve O 160314 wrote:

This is still a fail. County put up 3 signs total, one of which is not even placed where it will be encountered from the previous one. This is barely an improvement.

Thank you for your persistence, Steve — maybe it’s time to drop a dime on The Washington Post? Dr. Gridlock, Ashley Halsey, one of the Metro columnists like Petula Dvorak?

Or local business columnist which would most certainly get Clark’s attention?

Liz

[bobco85]

What does it actually look like now?

I’ll take some pics of the situation during my lunch break if no one else has any.

[eminva]

@bobco85 160331 wrote:

What does it actually look like now?

I’ll take some pics of the situation during my lunch break if no one else has any.

I can do another video on my way home if need be.

Liz

[Sunyata]

Total fail on my part for forgetting to update this after I got home. I got distracted by my adorable puppies.

I rode through there around 9:10 this morning, but failed to take pictures. But the signs are just about in the same spots as they were yesterday, with the exception of the detour sign coming off the trail spur. It now points to N Wakefield not at the curb cut…

Here are yesterday’s pictures:

The lone detour sign for west-bound riders:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14789[/ATTACH]

Active construction zone:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14790[/ATTACH]

Detour sign for east-bound riders, signs completely blocking the sidewalk. AND, that particular sidewalk ends abruptly with no curb cut to get off it if headed west. A nice 8-inch drop to the ground kind of sucks on a rigid bike with lots of air in the tires.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14791[/ATTACH]

Another detour sign for east-bound riders, but it has been moved about 100 feet closer to the trail and away from the curb cut.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14792[/ATTACH]

View coming from the Custis for east-bound riders.
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[bobco85]

Thank you for posting the pics.

Just to be clear, is this crudely and quickly drawn map the actual route of the detour according to the signs?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14795[/ATTACH]

It looks a lot better than I was imagining, although I understand that it is far from perfect. I’m glad actual signs are there, at least.

[Steve O]

@bobco85 160346 wrote:

Just to be clear, is this crudely and quickly drawn map the actual route of the detour according to the signs?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14795[/ATTACH]

Pretty much.

[bobco85]

Is there a sign outside the CrossFit (northeast corner of the detour), too? I don’t see it in the pics but want to make sure.

[Author]

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