Upcoming Four Mile Run Trail closures

[KayakCyndi]

@dbb 89376 wrote:

It was pretty sweet this morning. A little overgrown but quite passable.

Edit – Just sent a note to Arlington Trails for action

When I hit that spot they had stopped all bikes to pull the water barriers out of the river next to the trail. I didn’t have the patience to wait. Oh, and oddly, I think I actually prefer riding through Crystal City now …

[cyclingfool]

@dbb 89376 wrote:

A little overgrown but quite passable.

Edit – Just sent a note to Arlington Trails for action

Good idea.

@KayakCyndi 89381 wrote:

When I hit that spot they had stopped all bikes to pull the water barriers out of the river next to the trail. I didn’t have the patience to wait. Oh, and oddly, I think I actually prefer riding through Crystal City now …

There was a flagman there as I came through, but he waved me through. They were untying things, and it looked like getting ready to pull the last of the water barriers out.

AS for Crystal City, I hear you. I’ve been riding along 4MR the last couple days for a change of pace, but I really got used to and liked my commute route through Crystal City, too, especially in the mornings. I think I’ll probably go back to it soon as my default route, but it’s good to have options again, so I can mix things up more.

[vern]

@cyclingfool 89390 wrote:

Good idea.

There was a flagman there as I came through, but he waved me through. They were untying things, and it looked like getting ready to pull the last of the water barriers out.

AS for Crystal City, I hear you. I’ve been riding along 4MR the last couple days for a change of pace, but I really got used to and liked my commute route through Crystal City, too, especially in the mornings. I think I’ll probably go back to it soon as my default route, but it’s good to have options again, so I can mix things up more.

Eads wasn’t too bad when there was no construction, though I really dislike it on Friday afternoons (Driver’s totally lack patience and judgment). I found that I missed going that way this morning…it’s a nice change of pace from the trail.

[PotomacCyclist]

Well, there’s going to be quite a bit of road work and construction going on in the coming months. Work has already started on the Crystal City/Potomac Yard Transitway (bus rapid transit). The grassy areas along Crystal Drive in front of the EPA building and along S. Glebe Rd. near the Harris Teeter are going to be torn up for the new BRT route. I believe the work crews will start on the Potomac Yard (Arlington) sections first. Eventually they will convert one of the northbound lanes on Crystal Drive to a bus-preferred route, and a southbound lane on S. Bell/Clark St.

http://sites.arlingtonva.us/ccpc/transit-improvements/crystal-city-potomac-yard-transitway/

In the fall, Eads will be repaved. A temporary cycletrack is supposed to be installed on the new surface.

Beware of the new work zones that will start up soon.

[PotomacCyclist]

From Arlington County Dept. of Environmental Services:

Crystal City Potomac Yard Transitway Update

Come join us at the groundbreaking ceremony for Arlington’s Crystal City Potomac Yard Transitway – the first right-of-way in the Washington metropolitan area dedicated to premium surface transit operations! No rsvp needed, just stop by.

When: Friday, July 18, 2014, at 9 a.m.
Where: Corner of 33rd Street and Crystal Drive, in Potomac Yard
How to get there: Metrobus 9S and 9A or take Capital Bikeshare to the stations at South Glebe and Potomac Avenue, or 35th Street South and Potomac Avenue

Construction update

Initial construction activities for Arlington’s Transitway continue along South Glebe Road between Potomac Avenue and Jefferson Davis Hwy. Impacts should be minimal, with work planned for the daytime (7 a.m. to 4 p.m.). There will be some heavy equipment (backhoe, crew trucks, generator, dump truck) and noise will be typical construction noise (expected to be at or below allowable levels).

Note for transit riders: The existing bus stop and shelter on the north side of Glebe Road between Potomac Avenue and Jefferson Davis Hwy will be relocated westward approximately 200 feet, to the northeast corner of Glebe Road and Jefferson Davis Hwy, to allow for Transitway and station construction in that area.

Work currently underway and scheduled to progress over the next two weeks (first half of July) includes:

Removing existing roadway and sidewalk sections (pavers) and excavating foundation footings for Station C (Glebe Road).
Beginning Transitway excavation and grading work parallel to Glebe Road.
Installing maintenance of traffic signage and control devices along Crystal Drive in the vicinity of Station B (north of 33rd Street).
Continuing to install erosion and sediment control devices along Crystal Drive (33rd Street heading north).

http://sites.arlingtonva.us/ccpc/construction-underway/

[CaseyKane50]

Taken this morning.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6153[/ATTACH]

[cyclingfool]

@CaseyKane50 89599 wrote:

Taken this morning.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6153[/ATTACH]

Yeah, you beat me to it. I didn’t stop to take a picture, but I can report that as of about 8:45 this AM there was an ArlCo worker armed with a leaf blower (and whatever else he had in the truck) who had taken care of the worst of the offending vegetation and debris! Yay!

[consularrider]

@CaseyKane50 89599 wrote:

Taken this morning.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6153[/ATTACH]

To quote George Takei, “Oh, my!”
What a difference a day makes.

[bikesnick]

Smooooth.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6154[/ATTACH]

[PotomacCyclist]

Evel Knievel is sad.

But I think everyone else is happy.

[dbb]

@CaseyKane50 89599 wrote:

Taken this morning.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6153[/ATTACH]

That was quick. I got an email today from Arlington County Trails Manager with the work order number on the request to cut back the brush. Thanks to Arlington Parks!

[Steve O]

Bringing this over from another thread

Originally Posted by Emm
The switchbacks at Potomac Ave/MVT strike again!

According to this post and this post (see below) a permanent connection was supposed to be built to replace the temporary one. No later than the end of 2015.

Does anyone have news on that?

Originally Posted by jonathankrall
(posted April 2014) I didn’t notice this thread until today, so it didn’t occur to me to take careful notes at the meeting. Based on my shaky memory…

– Detour should be gone by end of June, hopefully sooner.
– Switchback ramp down to trail is slated to be replaced by something better (or at least designed to last), to provide access from Potomac Ave to the trail. This should happen soon, but I don’t recall what “soon” means. The basic idea is to do this while everything else in that area is being worked over, so by the end of 2015 at the latest. Arlington is building it, so maybe the Arlington BAC has info on the design.
– The entire 4 Mile Run restoration needs to be finished by the end of 2015 (I didn’t record the exact deadline–they said “18 months”), or the money goes away. The project will cause occasional trail disruptions on the Arlington side (moving equipment back and forth across the trail) but no trail closures.
– On the Alexandria side there will be a months-long trail closure and detour, but I didn’t notice the time line. The closed area will be near Mt Vernon Ave and the detour will connect the existing trail over to Bruce Street.

@chris_s 113973 wrote:

The new trail connection is NOT part of the restoration project and is on a different timeline.

What is that timeline?

[KLizotte]

I attended a community meeting in Aurora Hills last night and was told by Arlington County that starting in summer 2016 FMR will be closed to peds and cyclists for about a year due to rehabilitation of the stream and riverbank. They had hoped to avoid the closure but it turns out doing so significantly raised the cost of the project. A detour will be posted on the Alexandria side.

That said, the area will be much nicer after it is done and far more environmentally friendly.

Lastly, they are actively looking for funding to build a ped bridge between Commonwealth Ave and S Eads; the expected cost is $8 million. While this may be nice, given how close the ped bridge would be to the Rte 1 bridge I can think of many other ways to spend the money. Like repaving the Custis!

[chris_s]

@KLizotte 128259 wrote:

I attended a community meeting in Aurora Hills last night and was told by Arlington County that starting in summer 2016 FMR will be closed to peds and cyclists for about a year due to rehabilitation of the stream and riverbank. They had hoped to avoid the closure but it turns out doing so significantly raised the cost of the project. A detour will be posted on the Alexandria side.

Yeah, I was afraid of that. This was posted after their first round of bidding:

The construction bid opening for the Arlington portion of the Four Mile Run Restoration project was completed in June, 2015. The County only received one bid for the project and it was significantly higher than the engineer’s estimate. County staff met with the firm that submitted the bid to discuss the factors that were driving the construction costs, which are listed below:

Site Access. To minimize impacts on park and trail users during construction, the design plans did not allow site access through Four Mile Run Park nor any disruption of the Four Mile Run bike trail. This makes construction access difficult and lengthens the time and cost of construction because the contractor must cross Four Mile Run using a temporary bridge and also construct a coffer dam along the entire length of the project. The coffer dam would also serve to provide erosion and sediment control. Site access and erosion and sediment control techniques will need to be re-evaluated in order to get competitive, cost-effective construction bids.

More here

As long as they wait for Alexandria’s project to be done first, it’s not a terrible detour. I imagine they’d send everyone across at the Mt Vernon Ave bridge, along the newly rebuilt Alexandria-side trail, then you’d cross back at Route 1.

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 128260 wrote:

Yeah, I was afraid of that. This was posted after their first round of bidding:

The construction bid opening for the Arlington portion of the Four Mile Run Restoration project was completed in June, 2015. The County only received one bid for the project and it was significantly higher than the engineer’s estimate. County staff met with the firm that submitted the bid to discuss the factors that were driving the construction costs, which are listed below:

Site Access. To minimize impacts on park and trail users during construction, the design plans did not allow site access through Four Mile Run Park nor any disruption of the Four Mile Run bike trail. This makes construction access difficult and lengthens the time and cost of construction because the contractor must cross Four Mile Run using a temporary bridge and also construct a coffer dam along the entire length of the project. The coffer dam would also serve to provide erosion and sediment control. Site access and erosion and sediment control techniques will need to be re-evaluated in order to get competitive, cost-effective construction bids.

More here

As long as they wait for Alexandria’s project to be done first, it’s not a terrible detour. I imagine they’d send everyone across at the Mt Vernon Ave bridge, along the newly rebuilt Alexandria-side trail, then you’d cross back at Route 1.

Oh joy. That will sure bring a lot of attention to the state of the Mt Vernon Ave bridge and park connections on the Alexandria side.

[Author]

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