Has Alexandria Screwed Us Over Again (King-Beauregard this time)?

[bobco85]

Hmm, after reviewing the documents in the links you provided, I suppose my answer is mostly no and a little yes.

The “no, we were not screwed” answer:

• there will be a 10 foot MUP running on the north side of King St between Walter Reed Dr and 28th St
• there will be a 10 foot MUP running on the east side of Beauregard St starting about 100 or so feet from the King/Beauregard intersection
• there will be a 10 foot MUP running on the south side of King St between Beauregard Dr and 28th St
• extension of the sidewalk on the north side of King St between 28th St and Hampton Dr (with new crosswalk at King/Hampton)
• removal of the slip lanes will be far safer for pedestrians
• addition of a sorely needed crosswalk on the west side of the King/Beauregard intersection

The “yes, we were screwed” answer:

• all other sidewalks appear to remain the regular/narrow 6 feet or less (looking at the design, you can see where the sidewalk is narrow which is the current situation)
• the improvements end at King St/Hampton Dr, so there are no changes east of it along King St
• there will still be no sidewalk on the north/east side of King St for the 2 blocks between Hampton Dr and Park Center Dr
• getting across I-395 on King St will still be a pain

IMO, this project improves the area a lot, but its impact will be limited by the small area where the changes will take place as some major issues will still remain. I see it as a net positive, though.

[lordofthemark]

@bobco85 141710 wrote:

Hmm, after reviewing the documents in the links you provided, I suppose my answer is mostly no and a little yes.

The “no, we were not screwed” answer:

• there will be a 10 foot MUP running on the north side of King St between Walter Reed Dr and 28th St
• there will be a 10 foot MUP running on the east side of Beauregard St starting about 100 or so feet from the King/Beauregard intersection
• there will be a 10 foot MUP running on the south side of King St between Beauregard Dr and 28th St
• extension of the sidewalk on the north side of King St between 28th St and Hampton Dr (with new crosswalk at King/Hampton)
• removal of the slip lanes will be far safer for pedestrians
• addition of a sorely needed crosswalk on the west side of the King/Beauregard intersection

The “yes, we were screwed” answer:

• all other sidewalks appear to remain the regular/narrow 6 feet or less (looking at the design, you can see where the sidewalk is narrow which is the current situation)
• the improvements end at King St/Hampton Dr, so there are no changes east of it along King St
• there will still be no sidewalk on the north/east side of King St for the 2 blocks between Hampton Dr and Park Center Dr
• getting across I-395 on King St will still be a pain

IMO, this project improves the area a lot, but its impact will be limited by the small area where the changes will take place as some major issues will still remain. I see it as a net positive, though.

Re the South side of king between 28th and Hampton, the City has stated that there is a ROW issue with the Health department building there, that means there simply is no room for a 10 ft MUP there. I think when you add the 10 feet of the MUP to the seperation between the MUP and King, you push the MUP too close to the wall of the building. BUT – if and when that aging building is redeveloped, things would change (and presumably the 10 ft MUP would be extended as part of the redevelopment)

Re crossing 395. That is a separate project, and is in the project list presented at the recent Transportion Commission meeting that Fairlington linked to in an early thread. It is however out of scope for King and Beauregard.

OTOH – haven’t looked at the engineering docs, but I thought it was going to be a 6 ft sidepath on the north side of King – wider than what is there no, but not a 10 ft MUP. I could be wrong.

[consularrider]

Let me understand this, the City of Alexandria is having a ROW problem with a city government department? Is the office space leased or city owned? If it is city owned, who gives a flying rat’s @$$ that it is “too close” to the building which looks like it sits at least 30 feet back from the street. A retaining wall there is already part of the project. Stair access could easily be moved from the middle of that side of the building to the ends.

[peterw_diy]

Stair access moved? Have you seen how cheap our bike/ped projects are? We don’t even keep signposts out of our new MUPs.

The Health building at 4480 King is owned by the City: http://realestate.alexandriava.gov/detail.php?accountno=50470100

[lordofthemark]

It’s not the stair access. There is no open entrance on that side. They are happy to lose the stairs. I believe it is something physical relative to the building itself. I am not an engineer, and only had a very brief talk with someone about this.

[Fairlington124]

I was near this intersection over the weekend, and despite the groundbreaking ceremony (http://www.alexandrianews.org/2016/06/king-beauregard-intersection-improvement-project-groundbreaking-ceremony/) there’s no evidence so far of any work whatsoever. Any inkling on when bona fide work will begin?

[CaseyKane50]

@Fairlington124 141850 wrote:

I was near this intersection over the weekend, and despite the groundbreaking ceremony (http://www.alexandrianews.org/2016/06/king-beauregard-intersection-improvement-project-groundbreaking-ceremony/) there’s no evidence so far of any work whatsoever. Any inkling on when bona fide work will begin?

Groundbreaking ceremony was a symbolic start to the project.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12001[/ATTACH]

Contractor was supposed to “start” work yesterday. It might be days before you actually can see any work, as the contractor is probably just getting mobilized. Phase 1 work will include new retaining walls, closing off slip lanes and removing raised medians.

[consularrider]

Did they had to import a pile of dirt for the ceremonial “ground” breaking?

[lordofthemark]

Some pictures at the health department front on King.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12046[/ATTACH] (for scale)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12048[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12049[/ATTACH]

Looks to me like the stairs need to go for the 6 ft sidewalk plus the wider verge anyway. But to get to a full 10 ft for the MUP they would need to get rid of the walkway at the top of the stairs (and perhaps there are building utilities underneath it?) which I imagine is costlier.

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