[alrob]

Does anyone know the condition of the W&OD between Columbia Pike north/west out to the junction with the Custis? This part was cleared by the county until this year when NVRPA made them stop, claiming they would do it. However, I have not seen this happen yet. Should I ride up George Mason from Shirlington to the Custis instead?

[alrob]

@alrob 104462 wrote:

I asked Arlington about why the W&OD has been cleared the past several years but not this year and received the following reply:

“Many people don’t realize this, but the W&OD trail is not owned or operated by Arlington County. It is overseen by the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority. NVRPA. They maintain their own facilities at their own levels of service and told Arlington last year that in the future they do not want us clearing their trails without permission.

David J Goodman
Bicycle & Pedestrian Programs Manager
Arlington County Department of Environmental Services
703-228-3709″

So apparently NVRPA told them to stop doing it. I asked if they did get permission to clear the part that they did clear in Shirlington and whether they asked permission to clear the rest of it and were denied, but have not received a response. I don’t know why NVRPA wouldn’t want their trail cleared so it could be used, but it would appear to be some petty reason – like it makes them look bad if the Arlington part of the W&OD gets cleared but the rest of it does not. I also asked who at NVRPA should be contacted on this and find out what is going on, but I find it unconscionable that the county used to clear it off for us but now they can’t anymore because NVRPA won’t let them. I have heard their cross-country skiers excuse before, but that is a red herring as what cross-country skier would want to ski on lumpy ice? I have never seen any of the trails get damaged from clearing snow.

I received a response from NVRPA claiming that they cleared the trail when they didn’t do it. If they actually ran a snow blower over it, it was obviously way too late, since it couldn’t remove packed ice.

“Thank you for your message, I have passed it on to our two Arlington Board Members.

The snow this week was promptly cleared on the W&OD by NOVA Parks staff, and we have received praise from numerous parties for our quick action.

Post from Arlington Now about snow removal this week:

http://www.arlnow.com/2015/01/06/photos-winter-storm-surprises-arlington/

Because we want to maintain the W&OD in top condition we require that snow is removed with a snow blower vs. a snow plow. We have a large blower that we keep on the border of Arlington County so we can be responsive to snow. The County uses plows which can often cause damage to the asphalt. I hope this helps explain our different approach. The end result is the same – cleared trails.

Paul Gilbert
Executive Director
pgilbert@nvrpa.org
703-359-4600

Blog: http://www.regionalparks.blogspot.com

NOVA Parks Website: http://www.novaparks.com”

Has anybody seen any part of the W&OD that was promptly cleared by NVRPA staff? It certainly wasn’t the part of the W&OD north of Columbia Pike that I saw this morning.

Al

[alrob]

@alrob 104425 wrote:

Arlington carefully cleared the Four Mile Run trail (Anderson Bikeway) along Glebe Rd., the 395 underpass, and the W&OD in Shirlington between its eastern terminus and Columbia Pike. These stretches are totally clear and rideable now. However, north and west of Columbia Pike the W&OD hasn’t been touched, and most of it is unrideable. I bailed out onto Carlin Springs and then used the roads to get out to Great Falls St. on my way out to Tysons. I hear it is OK west of the Custis junction, because they cleared the Custis which is shared with the W&OD at that stretch. I don’t know why they would clear the Custis but leave the W&OD untouched (except for, ironically, the part of the W&OD through Shirlington that is easily bypassed and tends to melt off much quicker than the part they didn’t touch. They DID clear the untouched stretch of the W&OD last year. It seems that they should save their resources so that they can at least plow all the trails and skip some of the brine pretreatment if they have to in order to make ends meet. By now it is hardened into ice and isn’t very plowable until we get above freezing. The part they didn’t clear is one of the last stretches to melt on its own. That is the stretch that should receive the highest priority. They did not do any brine pretreatment on this stretch either.

@alrob 104462 wrote:

I asked Arlington about why the W&OD has been cleared the past several years but not this year and received the following reply:

“Many people don’t realize this, but the W&OD trail is not owned or operated by Arlington County. It is overseen by the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority. NVRPA. They maintain their own facilities at their own levels of service and told Arlington last year that in the future they do not want us clearing their trails without permission.

David J Goodman
Bicycle & Pedestrian Programs Manager
Arlington County Department of Environmental Services
703-228-3709″

So apparently NVRPA told them to stop doing it. I asked if they did get permission to clear the part that they did clear in Shirlington and whether they asked permission to clear the rest of it and were denied, but have not received a response. I don’t know why NVRPA wouldn’t want their trail cleared so it could be used, but it would appear to be some petty reason – like it makes them look bad if the Arlington part of the W&OD gets cleared but the rest of it does not. I also asked who at NVRPA should be contacted on this and find out what is going on, but I find it unconscionable that the county used to clear it off for us but now they can’t anymore because NVRPA won’t let them. I have heard their cross-country skiers excuse before, but that is a red herring as what cross-country skier would want to ski on lumpy ice? I have never seen any of the trails get damaged from clearing snow.

I received the following additional response from Mr. Goodman:

“

On 01/09/15, David Goodman wrote:

I don’t know who might have cleared that section or whether or not they had permission.​;

Your best approach as a citizen is to speak with Arlington’s two members on the NVRPA board, Paul Ferguson and Mike Nardolilli. http://www.nvrpa.org/park/main_site/content/the_board

If you’d like to discuss this further feel free to give me a call at my contact information, below.

Best of luck.”

So, I don’t know if it would do any good, but he said go to the NVRPA board.

[alrob]

@alrob 104425 wrote:

Arlington carefully cleared the Four Mile Run trail (Anderson Bikeway) along Glebe Rd., the 395 underpass, and the W&OD in Shirlington between its eastern terminus and Columbia Pike. These stretches are totally clear and rideable now. However, north and west of Columbia Pike the W&OD hasn’t been touched, and most of it is unrideable. I bailed out onto Carlin Springs and then used the roads to get out to Great Falls St. on my way out to Tysons. I hear it is OK west of the Custis junction, because they cleared the Custis which is shared with the W&OD at that stretch. I don’t know why they would clear the Custis but leave the W&OD untouched (except for, ironically, the part of the W&OD through Shirlington that is easily bypassed and tends to melt off much quicker than the part they didn’t touch. They DID clear the untouched stretch of the W&OD last year. It seems that they should save their resources so that they can at least plow all the trails and skip some of the brine pretreatment if they have to in order to make ends meet. By now it is hardened into ice and isn’t very plowable until we get above freezing. The part they didn’t clear is one of the last stretches to melt on its own. That is the stretch that should receive the highest priority. They did not do any brine pretreatment on this stretch either.

I asked Arlington about why the W&OD has been cleared the past several years but not this year and received the following reply:

“Many people don’t realize this, but the W&OD trail is not owned or operated by Arlington County. It is overseen by the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority. NVRPA. They maintain their own facilities at their own levels of service and told Arlington last year that in the future they do not want us clearing their trails without permission.

David J Goodman
Bicycle & Pedestrian Programs Manager
Arlington County Department of Environmental Services
703-228-3709″

So apparently NVRPA told them to stop doing it. I asked if they did get permission to clear the part that they did clear in Shirlington and whether they asked permission to clear the rest of it and were denied, but have not received a response. I don’t know why NVRPA wouldn’t want their trail cleared so it could be used, but it would appear to be some petty reason – like it makes them look bad if the Arlington part of the W&OD gets cleared but the rest of it does not. I also asked who at NVRPA should be contacted on this and find out what is going on, but I find it unconscionable that the county used to clear it off for us but now they can’t anymore because NVRPA won’t let them. I have heard their cross-country skiers excuse before, but that is a red herring as what cross-country skier would want to ski on lumpy ice? I have never seen any of the trails get damaged from clearing snow.

[alrob]

Arlington carefully cleared the Four Mile Run trail (Anderson Bikeway) along Glebe Rd., the 395 underpass, and the W&OD in Shirlington between its eastern terminus and Columbia Pike. These stretches are totally clear and rideable now. However, north and west of Columbia Pike the W&OD hasn’t been touched, and most of it is unrideable. I bailed out onto Carlin Springs and then used the roads to get out to Great Falls St. on my way out to Tysons. I hear it is OK west of the Custis junction, because they cleared the Custis which is shared with the W&OD at that stretch. I don’t know why they would clear the Custis but leave the W&OD untouched (except for, ironically, the part of the W&OD through Shirlington that is easily bypassed and tends to melt off much quicker than the part they didn’t touch. They DID clear the untouched stretch of the W&OD last year. It seems that they should save their resources so that they can at least plow all the trails and skip some of the brine pretreatment if they have to in order to make ends meet. By now it is hardened into ice and isn’t very plowable until we get above freezing. The part they didn’t clear is one of the last stretches to melt on its own. That is the stretch that should receive the highest priority. They did not do any brine pretreatment on this stretch either.

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