July road and trail conditions

[arlcxrider]

Due to utility work, southbound Jones Mill Rd. is closed just before East-West Hwy. The “official” detour is Twin Forks Lane, and then a left across four lanes of East-West Hwy. A lot of fun–not. I’m tempted to salmon on the shoulder instead.[ATTACH=CONFIG]30812[/ATTACH]

[Starduster]

I just rode the combo of Dora Kelly Nature Trail and Holmes Run Trail for the first time this year. The update is that bridges are still being repaired from the foundation up and the trail is still broken up. Going south from the end of Dawes St. down to the water, that pavement is getting more & more broken up and narrow. Caution highly advised.

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The section from Beauregard that takes the “tube” under I-395 is still closed. The Sanger detour remains.

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South of Duke St., this washed out bridge is still under construction.

[Crickey7]

@arlcxrider 225982 wrote:

Due to utility work, southbound Jones Mill Rd. is closed just before East-West Hwy. The “official” detour is Twin Forks Lane, and then a left across four lanes of East-West Hwy. A lot of fun–not. I’m tempted to salmon on the shoulder instead.[ATTACH=CONFIG]30812[/ATTACH]

Why wouldn’t you hop on the trail and cross at Meadowbrook?

[arlcxrider]

That trail is especially awful. I generally avoid trails if at all possible.

[arlcxrider]

All lanes of Jones Mill Rd. have re-opened. Now if they would only hurry up and finish the Purple Line overpass at Jones Bridge… sigh…

[huberww]

Riders on the CCT now have to navigate a more constricted pass-through at the end of the trail (west end of Water Street in Georgetown, under the old aqueduct). New gates have been installed, apparently to further restrict auto access to the Washington Canoe Club. As you can see, bikers now have to use the narrow passage along the wall of the archway (left side of pic, headed outbound). You will have to weave to avoid parked cars and maybe stopped bicyclists. A terrible design for bike traffic with poor sightlines. Formerly, bikes could pass without having to slow too much through the center of the gates where the chain now exists, and you could see oncoming traffic much better. The new configuration would not allow a biker to pass through the middle of (between) the gates, as in the past, even if the chain was not there.

No idea what may have been wrong with the old gates.

WTF, NPS?!!?

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[LhasaCM]

@huberww 226006 wrote:

Riders on the CCT now have to navigate a more constricted pass-through at the end of the trail (west end of Water Street in Georgetown, under the old aqueduct). New gates have been installed, apparently to further restrict auto access to the Washington Canoe Club. As you can see, bikers now have to use the narrow passage along the wall of the archway (left side of pic, headed outbound). You will have to weave to avoid parked cars and maybe stopped bicyclists. A terrible design for bike traffic with poor sightlines. Formerly, bikes could pass without having to slow too much through the center of the gates where the chain now exists, and you could see oncoming traffic much better. The new configuration would not allow a biker to pass through the middle of (between) the gates, as in the past, even if the chain was not there.

No idea what may have been wrong with the old gates.

WTF, NPS?!!?

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Per Greg Billing (former WABA director, now Georgetown BID transportation person), the goal of the pilot project is, as you say, to prevent unauthorized cars from driving up the trail by creating dedicated “open” space for bicycle and pedestrian traffic and narrowing where cars can go. Sounds nice in theory, but it also sounds like in practice it’s far from ideal (to put it mildly).

Per his response to my tweet, he’s checking with their NPS partners to see how they’d like to receive feedback so people can weigh in on what’s not working. https://twitter.com/gregbilling/status/1679153347226394624

[mstone]

why on earth did NPS think it was a good idea to put those hilariously stupid looking bollards there to force cyclists into the wall, rather than narrowing the path by putting something against the wall? like, did anyone actually look at this plan while it was being drawn up, or even as they started to install it?

[arlcxrider]

ICYMI: another doozy of a Purple Line delay. A seven-month time extension, plus a juicy $148 million payment.

https://www.purplelinemd.com/component/jdownloads/?task=download.send&id=830&catid=91&m=0&Itemid=108

Maybe we should put this down as “July 2023-2027 Road and Trail Conditions.” For those of a historical bent, the Georgetown Branch Trail has been closed since 2017.

[huberww]

Sure is hard for me to see how these new gates can be characterized as a “pilot” when seemingly-effective gates that were less obstructive to bicyclists were in place for years.

[LhasaCM]

For any and all feedback re: the new gates – please send a note to C&O Canal Park Partnerships Coordinator Shaun Lehmann. His email is: shaun_lehmann@nps.gov

(I’m just the messenger relaying what was shared on Twitter!)

[Crickey7]

The whole misbegotten rerouting violates basic design principles; if you have to rely on a sign to overcome people’s natural preferences, the design will probably fail. Pedestrians in particular are going to choose the passage that’s closest to them, and most of the time that will be the one on the South side of the entrance that’s designated for cyclists. It seems to me that what they should do is shift the drive portion and gate more to the North, and make a larger (and better paved) pedestrian and cyclist passage on the South side.

[consularrider]

Brand new paving on the Rocky Run Trail for the first half mile west of the Fairfax County Parkway, then reverts to dirt/mud and gravel/crushed stone
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[mstone]

@consularrider 226015 wrote:

Brand new paving on the Rocky Run Trail for the first half mile west of the Fairfax County Parkway, then reverts to dirt/mud and gravel/crushed stone

I don’t really understand what FCPA is doing here. They were supposed to replace the bridge at the end of this section with one that doesn’t flood every time there’s a heavy rain. They haven’t replaced the bridge, so presumably the new pavement will be flooded every time there’s a heavy rain? I also haven’t been impressed with the quality of the work they’ve done on this trail generally; the section near stringfellow was paved only a couple of years ago and is already full of root heaves and has generally poor drainage. The overall intent is good, but the execution of the contracts has been terrible.

They also refused to get rid of the bollards, which are often folded down into death traps. 😡

[arlcxrider]

A cyclist rode off the “Saddle Club Bridge” yesterday in Rock Creek Park. It’s the first bridge south of Connecticut. A piece of railing has been missing for months (it looks like a tree fell on it) and NPS “fixed” it with yellow caution tape.

https://wjla.com/news/local/dc-fire-and-ems-woman-rescued-with-serious-injuries-after-her-bike-went-off-saddle-club-footbridge-over-rock-creek-arizona-vortex-tripod-hoist-dupont-circle-metro-station-elevator#

Rescued from the stream by DC Fire and EMS, and hospitalized with “serious, non-life-threatening” injuries. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Author]

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