October 2018 – Road & Trail Conditions

[ursus]

Having read about the problems at Trollheim, it looks like construction workers have it in for bicyclists today. One working on the Key Bridge severely rutted the C&O towpath below it.

https://twitter.com/WHands80/status/1047222854285189120

[dbb]

Somebody had fun with the detour sign at the top of the 14th St Bridge stairs. Well played.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18443[/ATTACH]

[pmf]

Anyone know how long the stairs detour on the DC side of the 14-th street bridge is going to last? I’m surprised no one has been hurt hauling their bikes up and down 40 stairs.

[Judd]

@pmf 181711 wrote:

Anyone know how long the stairs detour on the DC side of the 14-th street bridge is going to last? I’m surprised no one has been hurt hauling their bikes up and down 40 stairs.

Construction is planned to take 10 weeks with the stairs also being closed for one week starting October 7th.

[bentbike33]

@pmf 181711 wrote:

Anyone know how long the stairs detour on the DC side of the 14-th street bridge is going to last? I’m surprised no one has been hurt hauling their bikes up and down 40 stairs.

For the few of you who cross the 14th street bridge and then go north on the MVT, I’ve found that a good stairless, low-stress alternative is Ohio Drive to the downstream (south) side of Memorial Bridge. Memorial bridge is a bit busy, bumpy, and plagued by construction obstacles, but you get 2 of those 3 on the MVT anyway. Ohio Drive is smooth, straight, and almost entirely unused by anyone. I’ve found the cars on the 2 GWMP crossings down to the MVT to be well behaved (so far) as well.

[dasgeh]

@bentbike33 181713 wrote:

For the few of you who cross the 14th street bridge and then go north on the MVT, I’ve found that a good stairless, low-stress alternative is Ohio Drive to the downstream (south) side of Memorial Bridge. Memorial bridge is a bit busy, bumpy, and plagued by construction obstacles, but you get 2 of those 3 on the MVT anyway. Ohio Drive is smooth, straight, and almost entirely unused by anyone. I’ve found the cars on the 2 GWMP crossings down to the MVT to be well behaved (so far) as well.

This is great until NPS closes the downstream side of the Memorial Bridge too. I keep trying to get info on when that’s going to happen, but no luck so far.

[bentbike33]

@dasgeh 181714 wrote:

This is great until NPS closes the downstream side of the Memorial Bridge too. I keep trying to get info on when that’s going to happen, but no luck so far.

According to this NPS web page, “The westbound sidewalk will close first from fall 2018 until fall 2019.” I’m guessing that means the north (upstream) sidewalk since that is next to the lanes where the cars usually go west. Even if the 14th Street Bridge ramp work goes past 10 weeks, it will hopefully end before “fall 2019”.

[scoot]

@bentbike33 181716 wrote:

According to this NPS web page, “The westbound sidewalk will close first from fall 2018 until fall 2019.” I’m guessing that means the north (upstream) sidewalk since that is next to the lanes where the cars usually go west.

I too would think that “westbound sidewalk” means the upstream side. But when one continues reading, the details of NPS’s ped/bike detours correspond to the case where the downstream sidewalk is closed and the upstream sidewalk is open. So it’s unclear at best.

[pmf]

@Judd 181712 wrote:

Construction is planned to take 10 weeks with the stairs also being closed for one week starting October 7th.

So they’re closing the whole 14-th street bridge crossing next week!!!!!??

[Judd]

@pmf 181719 wrote:

So they’re closing the whole 14-th street bridge crossing next week!!!!!??

Yes. Press release from NPS is below. Planned closure from the 7th to the 13th, weather permitting. The press release is a few weeks old now and I couldn’t find any other updates.

https://www.nps.gov/nama/learn/news/biketrailwork.htm

[dbb]

Just got an email from NPS.

“…will touch base with contractor tomorrow to see if it is still a go and will get the word out.

ps – working on getting your bushes trimmed and runnel installed.”

The offending bush is the one on the inside corner of East Basin Drive and Ohio.

[dbb]

@pmf 181719 wrote:

So they’re closing the whole 14-th street bridge crossing next week!!!!!??

Well, everybody had been complaining about the stairs. Problem solved!

[rcannon100]

@dbb 181722 wrote:

Well, everybody had been complaining about the stairs. Problem solved!

No no no. Some of use have been complaining about an entirely different set of stairs

[dbb]

@rcannon100 181723 wrote:

No no no. Some of use have been complaining about an entirely different set of stairs

Complaining? Hmmm. Are you okay?

[dbb]

Just got word from NPS: “closing trail from Tuesday-Friday in order to improve the top path”

This leaves Memorial, Roosevelt and Key Bridges

[Author]

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