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My winter kit often includes a Niterider mounted to my helmet so if I think a motorist doesn’t see me I can direct the beam to a location where it might be a bit more noticable such as their face. On the trail the helmet light is typically dark. For the trails, I use a combination of Niteriders of varying strength, maxing out at about 600 lumens. The older Niteriders had a rapid flash mode that was quite noticeable, but my newer ones have a slower flash that isn’t quite as siezure inducing.

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It will be interesting to see how they hold up. I’d expect we will start seeing dings and tire scrapes as motorists discover they don’t drive as well as they think.

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@Starduster 226106 wrote:

Would *we* have been ticketed for moving those barrels off to the side?

I doubt anybody would have attracted the ire of the police as they don’t seem to notice much related to our roadways

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Shitshow alert. South bike lane on Eads just south of 15th.

Not sure who thought this was a good idea.

Report a problem ticket logged 1500 hrs 28 Aug

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The only mention of the CC2DCA bridge is in the abbreviations table (based on a word search). It would seem to be prudent to include some discussion of the two projects.

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Dominion installed a ramp at the Glebe Road substation to address the narrowed driveway apron.

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Work at Dominion Glebe substation – 2-3 May

Just got this from Dominion

“I wanted to reach out to you about work that will take place tomorrow at Glebe Substation. We’re starting to work on the receiving pit for micro tunnel operations. The pit will be located inside the substation. Starting tomorrow, we will drive metal rails into the ground. This should not cause vibration. The machine is very quick, but loud. The 34 rails take about a minute each, so we will begin installing tomorrow, with breaks in between each to get set up for the next. It should take a day or two.

I’m letting you know because we will have flaggers on both sides of the trail around the substation to make sure trail traffic is aware there is an increase in noise while we drive the metal. We don’t want to alarm anyone. The flaggers will try to avoid doing so, but may need to ask traffic to pause briefly while some of the metal is carried into the station by our crew members. We will try to plan bring in the metal when no traffic is around the site to avoid impacts of traffic flow. Normally we do not need to pause traffic for deliveries, but since this will be brought in by hand and the metal pieces are long, we need to be extra careful.”

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Just got an email from my contact at Dominion regarding the boardwalk at the Glebe substation work.

She asked “I wanted to check in and see if you have any other feedback on the boardwalk since its been in operation for a few weeks now. Anything good or bad you would like to share or have heard from others?”

I told her I would seek input from the forum and share the responses.

Operators are standing by …

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@huskerdont 225225 wrote:

At the new Glebe Road Bridge, note also that westbound they got the ADA ramp a bit wrong and you could easily flat if you weren’t careful. It’s not as bad as the East Basin Drive ramp in DC.

The contractor got another shot at the ramps and they are much better. Shots are from this afternoon

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@Starduster 225184 wrote:

OK fellow lumberjacks: What do we do now?

Just got an email from Dominion that said “Thanks for reaching out. We are working on fixing this issue as soon as possible.”

Their rep has been pretty responsive to me so I’m remaining positive.

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@Starduster 225184 wrote:

OK fellow lumberjacks: What do we do now?

It seems that some reverse-lumberjacking has occurred

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@huskerdont 225225 wrote:

At the new Glebe Road Bridge, note also that westbound they got the ADA ramp a bit wrong and you could easily flat if you weren’t careful. It’s not as bad as the East Basin Drive ramp in DC.

I just got an email from the ArCo project manager who said “We are aware of the issue and it will be an item for the punchlist.”

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There is traffic on the West Glebe bridge. Sidewalk lanes on both the upstream and downstream sides of the bridge are still closed. Detour at the end of the bridge now has cross traffic.

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At the Dominion site on Glebe, it seems that the cone and barrel that had provided some warning that a curb face was in your future have been removed.

This crap shouldn’t be so damned hard.

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So my take on the Arlington National Cemetery response is that it reads like the entry for “slow walking” in a bureaucrat’s thesaurus. I’ve extracted the actions (inactions??) in the ANC response (I got the same one).

1. FHWA has been refreshing
2. will be undergoing modifications
3. will be installing new signage and replacing older signs
4. have been removed and rearranged
5. will be added.
6. was installed to join their two existing sidewalks
7. streetlighting during dark hours is currently undergoing further evaluation
8. is currently undergoing further evaluation with ACG (ArCo govt)
9. is undergoing further evaluation for potential enhancement

I sent this to ANC suggesting their earlier response lacked many actions that would actually address the problems (below)

“Ms. Meeker,

Thanks for the reply to my earlier email. I’d appreciate some details as your team’s response seems to lack specificity, particularly with respect to the actions to address the problems and the expected dates of completion. Can you please provide that information? Please understand that I’ve been working this issue since October and it seems that the time for planning and consideration has passed.

Of the nine items you highlighted in yesterday’s email, only two appear to have been completed. The remainder of the items are either underway or actions are being considered. As you indicated, many of the remaining issues won’t be resolved as the actions you described are under evaluation, leaving the actual resolution to follow that evaluation.

When I rode the detour today, I did note that the sidewalk had fewer blockages, however it remained littered with gravel from the nearby roadway. For an individual using a wheelchair, the loose gravel could be a problem.

At the top of the hill where the detour shifts to the north towards the sidewalk on the north side of Southgate (the attached photo), the transition from the median sidewalk to the asphalt is uneven and may present accessibility issues. Sharing the area immediately adjacent to the pedestrian path for parking increases the potential for conflicts between cars and those using the detour. Setting some jersey barriers on the unprotected side of the path would separate the detour and parking area.

If your team needs assistance in developing routes that are accessible, the Federal Highway Administration has accessibility experts in their Civil Rights office. I’d expect USACE would have comparable expertise as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to getting these issues resolved.”
I got this response, “These are the only details we have to share at this time. We’ll be sure to keep you informed as we have further updates.”

As a former construction manager, I’d expect that I could have everything but the lighting addressed in less than a week. Site safety is generally front and center in construction contracts and the wording is often pretty inclusive. If the FHWA were so inclined, they could say the efforts of the contractor to date have been inadequate and demand improvements. Several could be resolved merely by moving barrels and jersey barriers from somewhere else on the site.

The saga continues.

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