How will the Arlington Boat House affect cyclists?

[accordioneur]

The National Park service has come out with recommendations for a new rowing boathouse in Rosslyn (see plan here and Washington Post article here). The design is a split facility: boathouse and docks riverside just north of the Roosevelt Island parking lot, and a building with locker rooms, restrooms, etc. located up at street level – alongside the currently derelict driveway adjacent to the path from the IOD to the MVT. Access between the two will be via the existing path and the hairpin ramp – that’s right, all the users of the boathouse (entire high school rowing teams, etc.) will be marching up and down the path and the hairpin as they go to and from the docks. I’m not sure NPS and the county have thought through the congestion that will ensue on this little path – I hope they at least widen it and change the grading.

I also think this plan stinks from a kayaker’s perspective, but that’s a story for a different forum.

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[dasgeh]

It’s as if VDOT were to build a park and make part of the drive through the park I-66.

[Judd]

Won’t somebody please think of the viewshed?

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[huskerdont]

It’s going to be a bit of a cluster, that’s for sure. I’d say it’s too bad the park service just redid the trail design and parking lot except that it’ll be years before it’s torn up from construction.

Private boaters wanting to park in the parking lot to drop off boats will presumably have the same access issues everyone has now; e.g., the parking lot can only be accessed heading northbound on the parkway. Traffic can be so bad there during rush hour as to make it almost unusable during that period.

[accordioneur]

@huskerdont 179349 wrote:

It’s going to be a bit of a cluster, that’s for sure. I’d say it’s too bad the park service just redid the trail design and parking lot except that it’ll be years before it’s torn up from construction.

Private boaters wanting to park in the parking lot to drop off boats will presumably have the same access issues everyone has now; e.g., the parking lot can only be accessed heading northbound on the parkway. Traffic can be so bad there during rush hour as to make it almost unusable during that period.

The plan emphasizes that there will be no road access to the docks. It’s pretty much meant for the exclusive use of rowing teams which store shells there. Private boaters not welcome – which is one of my major objections to the plan. As a sop to the paddling community they’re going to create a small car-top launch at Roaches Run. I agree that in practice people will park at TR Island parking lot and carry their boats over to the dock – assuming they’re even allowed to use it.

[Author]

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