W&OD 2-month Closure for Four Mile Run Stream Repair near N. Madison St.

[Sunyata]

Trail was “closed off” this morning, but you could see tire tracks and lots of foot prints in the snow since it had not been plowed. Since the detour off the trail was plowed, I opted to go that way instead. BIG mistake.

The roads were fine, but once you got back on 4MR Trail, nothing was plowed, and it was an icy, slushy, rutted mess.

So, ArlCo, if you are going to detour a normally plowed section of trail onto other trails, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, please plow the detour. Especially if it goes over wooden (ICY) bridges.

[sjclaeys]

@Sunyata 187689 wrote:

Trail was “closed off” this morning, but you could see tire tracks and lots of foot prints in the snow since it had not been plowed. Since the detour off the trail was plowed, I opted to go that way instead. BIG mistake.

The roads were fine, but once you got back on 4MR Trail, nothing was plowed, and it was an icy, slushy, rutted mess.

So, ArlCo, if you are going to detour a normally plowed section of trail onto other trails, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, please plow the detour. Especially if it goes over wooden (ICY) bridges.

What Sunyata said. Plus, there were tracks from some type of vehicle on 4MR Trail, so it is not as if a plow could not have cleared the trail.

[Steve O]

@sjclaeys 187691 wrote:

What Sunyata said. Plus, there were tracks from some type of vehicle on 4MR Trail, so it is not as if a plow could not have cleared the trail.

When I came through a bit later, the little plow truck was out doing it. He did miss a spot, though.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19530[/ATTACH]

[DismalScientist]

I walked by the closed sign last night. Nothing was happening on the trail. Maybe some of the orange fencing was taken down. I think the signage people and the actual construction people are two separate groups.

I noticed they paved the path from 7th (?) St S to the WOD, but the sidewalk closed sign was still up even though construction was clearly sufficient to ride the new path.

[dbb]

Walked? What is this activity Dismal speaks of?

[DismalScientist]

Last time I looked, the closed signs were moved next to the trail, not on it. I hope this wasn’t the work of some rogue cyclist. After all, the members of the Arlington County Sign Movers Union need to be paid.

[Sunyata]

@DismalScientist 187838 wrote:

Last time I looked, the closed signs were moved next to the trail, not on it. I hope this wasn’t the work of some rogue cyclist. After all, the members of the Arlington County Sign Movers Union need to be paid.

I think the signs were moved over the weekend, but not sure by who. When I went through there yesterday morning, the signs were still on the side of the trail. When I came through yesterday afternoon, the signs were back up with orange netting completely blocking the trail on both sides.

[Tania]

It was closed-closed this am. The hill on Manchester looks WAY worse than it is. Once I got to the top I knew to turn left but then I wasn’t sure where to go (no signs). It also wasn’t immediately clear that I needed to turn onto the sidewalk there at Patrick Henry rather than cross the street (the other somewhat-lost cyclist with me crossed) – I had to stop and look around to figure out what I should do. Once I popped back out to the W&OD a helpful (?) pedestrian yelled at me to cut through the picnic area/park rather than heading back west to get to the custis entrance. Ground was softer than I liked, sorry about the tracks I left.

[bentbike33]

@Tania 187884 wrote:

It was closed-closed this am. The hill on Manchester looks WAY worse than it is. Once I got to the top I knew to turn left but then I wasn’t sure where to go (no signs). It also wasn’t immediately clear that I needed to turn onto the sidewalk there at Patrick Henry rather than cross the street (the other somewhat-lost cyclist with me crossed) – I had to stop and look around to figure out what I should do. Once I popped back out to the W&OD a helpful (?) pedestrian yelled at me to cut through the picnic area/park rather than heading back west to get to the custis entrance. Ground was softer than I liked, sorry about the tracks I left.

I’ve been taking a detour on the north side of I-66 using the Custis Spurt. Cross the Custis Spurt bike/ped bridge, right on the trail until it ends at McKinley cul-de-sac, right on 14th, right on 11th, right on Kensington, left on Fairfax, scoot over to Custis. Stop sign at the bottom of the hill for Kennebec is the principal annoyance.
Very little traffic during either rush hour. Adds a couple of climbs and about 0.1 miles compared to the un-detoured trails. No CX skilz required.

[Steve O]

@bentbike33 187887 wrote:

I’ve been taking a detour on the north side of I-66 using the Custis Spurt. Cross the Custis Spurt bike/ped bridge, right on the trail until it ends at McKinley cul-de-sac, right on 14th, right on 11th, right on Kensington, left on Fairfax, scoot over to Custis. Stop sign at the bottom of the hill for Kennebec is the principal annoyance.
Very little traffic during either rush hour. Adds a couple of climbs and about 0.1 miles compared to the un-detoured trails. No CX skilz required.

Here’s a map with bentbike’s route shown in fuchsia. The official detour is shown in aqua. The closed sections are x’ed.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19589[/ATTACH]

[pmf]

@Tania 187884 wrote:

It was closed-closed this am. The hill on Manchester looks WAY worse than it is. Once I got to the top I knew to turn left but then I wasn’t sure where to go (no signs). It also wasn’t immediately clear that I needed to turn onto the sidewalk there at Patrick Henry rather than cross the street (the other somewhat-lost cyclist with me crossed) – I had to stop and look around to figure out what I should do. Once I popped back out to the W&OD a helpful (?) pedestrian yelled at me to cut through the picnic area/park rather than heading back west to get to the custis entrance. Ground was softer than I liked, sorry about the tracks I left.

I got to enjoy the detour as well. I agree that the Manchester hill wasn’t that bad. It’s pretty short. But I’m trying the other way on the way home. It sure has been a year of detour activity on the bike trails this year. The 14-th street bridge ramp, grand slalom repair in Arlington, and now this. I do like the pattern they have of blocking the trail off with signs, and then commencing work a 7-10 days later. Over the years, I’ve watched the creek carve quite a bit of real estate out of that corner. Sometimes the path even floods. I guess it needs to be done.

So if this is the first official day (and I didn’t see anything going on), it’s likely closed until the end of March? Wish they’d done it in December when I was on vacation.

[josh]

@Steve O 187895 wrote:

Here’s a map with bentbike’s route shown in teal. The official detour is shown in aqua. The closed sections are x’ed.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19589[/ATTACH]

That’s an interesting teal.

[bentbike33]

@josh 187899 wrote:

That’s an interesting teal.

Behr Paint calls that shade “dark magenta teal”.

[Steve O]

@bentbike33 187901 wrote:

Behr Paint calls that shade “dark magenta teal”.

Magenta, teal, fuchsia, fulvous, glaucous, wenge, coquelicot, whatever…

Shoulda said red

[pmf]

@josh 187899 wrote:

That’s an interesting teal.

OK … having done both detours, I’d definitely recommend the posted one rather than bentbike’s. The hill on it is worse than Manchester street on the posted detour. Going a block further on the posted route, the next hill is a lot less steep. Riding from Vienna to DC, I get enough hills, so I don’t seek out more.

[Author]

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