October 2018 – Road & Trail Conditions

[ginacico]

@CaseyKane50 181998 wrote:

I was unimpressed by this detour and the efforts of the contractor to provide a safe route pedestrians and bike riders.

Agreed! They started out with good intentions — the cooler full of water, signs, and sturdy ramp over the pipe — but the project has turned into a real clusterf*#k. I live right there and pretty much can’t avoid it.

For awhile they’ve had the short section of sidewalk from the trail to Meade closed off. Even getting into or out of my neighborhood, which requires crossing Glebe (insane without a light and crosswalk, and the one at Meade is the most used) has gotten difficult.

I’m not sure what good detour options they have. The Berkeley construction definitely compounds the mess. But whatever they recommend should be clearly signed and not leave people guessing, or riding through mud, or spit out into the traffic lanes.

At this point, I can’t wait for them to hurry up and finish.

[Judd]

@ginacico 182002 wrote:

I’m not sure what good detour options they have. The Berkeley construction definitely compounds the mess. But whatever they recommend should be clearly signed and not leave people guessing, or riding through mud, or spit out into the traffic lanes.

Glebe Road temporary cycletrack.

[dbb]

The sidewalk in front of the Giant as part of the FMR detour is particularly screwy as the amount of sidewalk stuff (trash cans, paper boxes, etc) makes taking the sidewalk almost impossible. Somebody from the County should have walked the route to ensure it was suitable.

[LhasaCM]

@Judd 182007 wrote:

Glebe Road cycletrack.

Looked like you had an extraneous word – fixed it for ya…

[huskerdont]

People are trying, I guess, and that’s great, but in the “year of the detour” it has been demonstrated that planners and engineers really need to walk or bike the detour routes, as well as consider the planned changes from the perspective of pedestrians and cyclists.

The most baffling one to me was the placement of the walk signal in the middle of the Custis right in front of the curb ramp at Scott, but they’ve since moved over a few feet after complaints. Still a bit tight in there when pedestrians are present, but nothing a bit of slowing down won’t cure.

[lordofthemark]

The 4MRT was open this morning, EB, though the sidewalk was closed.

[Steve O]

Correction to this. The detour sign was just after passing under Mt. Vernon, not just past Eads.
@Steve O 181993 wrote:

I rode westbound about 1:30pm and was detoured just past Eads towards Glebe.. .

[accordioneur]

Closure at S. Uhle St. this afternoon. No detour provided. Had to walk through the churned up dirt across the narrow strip left between where the trucks were parked and the road. It looks like they were building a mini-ramp so they could have another pipe or something cross the trail. Should be good for some BMX style stunts.

[bentbike33]

Our friends at NPS, or at least their contractor, have taken stupid to a whole new level at 14th Street Bridge stairs.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18491[/ATTACH]

There are cones and aluminum troughs and poles strewn about making the stairs even narrower, and impossible to use the concrete ramps on the sides of the stairs.

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@bentbike33 182034 wrote:

Our friends at NPS, or at least their contractor, have taken stupid to a whole new level at 14th Street Bridge stairs.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18491[/ATTACH]

There are cones and aluminum troughs and poles strewn about making the stairs even narrower, and impossible to use the concrete ramps on the sides of the stairs.

Does anybody at bikearlington or waba have contact info for project managers and other officials responsible for this shit? Its about time some of the incompetents in charge are held responsible for the constant devolution of this project.

[dbb]

I reached out to the NPS and the work appears to be based on the design of the runnels in Georgetown (possibly the stairs leading down to the trail). It isn’t clear in the photo I saw (from Georgetown) if the runnels are continuous or only on the inclines (which seem to be less effective).

[lordofthemark]

@dbb 182060 wrote:

I reached out to the NPS and the work appears to be based on the design of the runnels in Georgetown (possibly the stairs leading down to the trail). It isn’t clear in the photo I saw (from Georgetown) if the runnels are continuous or only on the inclines (which seem to be less effective).

The runnels are only on the inclines. I used them going down this AM, but I am 50-50 on whether I will do that again (at least going down) vs carrying the bike.

[Emm]

@lordofthemark 182065 wrote:

The runnels are only on the inclines. I used them going down this AM, but I am 50-50 on whether I will do that again (at least going down) vs carrying the bike.

I actually found balancing my bike with panniers on the non continuous runnels to be more difficult than just carrying my bike. The runnels are narrow, and my bike was heavy and a little tough to control with the constant moving on and off the thin runnels. We’ll see what going up is like this PM.

[gibby]

Tried the downhill runnel today since I was carrying a heavy load on the back. Fortunately I was wearing recessed cleats vs regular road cleats, cuz walking down those short steps with a heavy bike, picking up speed quickly was a little dicey. If there had been any frost on the steps I woulda been slipping n sliding the whole way down.
Definitely going back to just muscling up and hoisting the beast.

[bentbike33]

I used the concrete stringer next to the incomplete runnel to roll down because some Lumberjack or other had moved the cones out of the way over the weekend.

[Author]

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