[dbb]

The Arlington Cemetery Southern Expansion will ultimately use the land where the Navy Annex (between Columbia Pike and Southgate and the AF Memorial and Oak) as well as the Navy Annex parking between Columbia Pike and I-395 for additional burial space and maintenance areas. The area between Columbia Pike and I-395 will be a maintenance facility and will connect with the Cemetery via a tunnel under Columbia Pike.

The roadwork is being done by the Federal Highway Administration for the Cemetery. When the roadwork is complete, Southgate will be gone, Columbia Pike will be shifted to connect with Joyce much closer to I-395 and the cloverleaf of Washington Blvd and Columbia Pike will be reconfigured. At that point, the Corps of Engineers will manage the construction on the new Cemetery property.

While it would seem that the FHWA would be leading the coordination with the public about the construction, the Arlington National Cemetery Public Affairs office has assumed that responsibility. I’m not sure why they thought that was a good idea but that was their call. To that end, I’m sure the ANC Public Affairs staff would love to hear how their project is affecting the community.

While there does not seem to be a ANC Public Affairs email box that I could find, their Twitter address is @ArlingtonNatl and Facebook at ArlingtonNatl. There is an outside chance their email is anc.web@mail.mil but I’m not sure.

All that said, I’m sure they would welcome any comments you might have about their construction project.

Attached is a presentation I did at one of the neighboring civic associations last week.[ATTACH]30239[/ATTACH]

[dbb]

@Judd 222501 wrote:

The ramps to the temporary bride on Four Mile Run have been paved. It looked like about a quarter of the railing was still remaining installation. The bridge has caution tape up at the moment. Didn’t see anything that would prevent opening once the rest of the railing is up.

The thought occurred to me today that instead of building a temporary boardwalk that it would have been cool to build out the enbankement and realign the trail here to remove the sharp curve and reduce the grade at the intersection with the ramp to Route 1. I seem to recall Steve O trying to get the County to expand the scope when this piece of 4MR trail was rebuilt to move 20 feet east and improve this intersection.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29673[/ATTACH]

It seems that many of the decisions were made years ago. I asked about keeping the pier that the power pole closest to the shore as a scenic platform and was told that the State Utilities Commission had directed Dominion to remove it. I was also thinking that the boardwalk could be a trail separation where peds could look at the water and maybe fish and not be on the trail. Dominion said that the boardwalk has to come down so they can remove the overhead wires. I’m going to have to think on that a bit.

[dbb]

Well, it seems ArCo was responsible for the tree cutting.

Note from the FMR dredging project manager “The trees were not removed as part of the dredging project, but as a requirement from the Army Corps of Engineers. The Army Corps des periodic inspections of the flood channel and provides a report with required maintenance and repair activities. They determined that these trees were too close to the flood wall, and if they fell over, they could cause part of the flood wall to fall over as well. We will be planting replacement trees in a more suitable location and are working with our urban forestry staff to locate the new trees.”

[dbb]

Dominion indicates it wasn’t them but suggested the FMR dredging project might be responsible.

[dbb]

@dbb 222664 wrote:

I’d like to report the removal of all the trees between the trail and the flood wall to the east of Glebe bridge under construction. WTF? The trees between the trail and roadway are still there.

Not sure what problem this action was intended to solve.

Pretty amazing it happened under the radar (well, my radar) when just a few years ago the Washington Blvd trail to the west of Fort Myer was delayed because some trees needed to be selectively removed.

Along the Four Mile Run trail the selection process seemed to be “all of them”.

I’ve reached out to Arlington Parks and Dominion to see if anybody fesses up to the action.

[dbb]

I’d like to report the removal of all the trees between the trail and the flood wall to the east of Glebe bridge under construction. WTF? The trees between the trail and roadway are still there.

Not sure what problem this action was intended to solve.

[dbb]

Who gets to let the Park Police at Hain’s Point know this law is in effect? I doubt they will be glad to learn of the change!

[dbb]

Although I’m coming late to this party, it seems that we might all agree on the need for more enforcement – against clearly unlawful stuff as well as people being, well, idiots. Alas, in spite of our desire for that I’d give odds we won’t see it in the immediate future. Hell, we can’t even get Arlington to consistently enforce cars that block bike lanes in (insert Arlington neighborhood here) and for those violations the police can drive up to the “scene of the crime”.

While I agree that internal combustion cycles annoy me on the trails, I’m not sure there is much that can be done. In my experience, they are few and far between and other trail users annoy me more (because of their higher population).

I think that legislative bodies are coming late to the game with respect to crafting regulations for dockless bikes, scooters, ebikes, and other potential game changers. It was those same legislators that were surprised by Lyft and Uber five years before, so I’m not full of hope. I think for the vast majority of cyclists, ebikes will be far preferred to internal combustion, so the noise/odor issue is likely short lived. Establishing some societal norm for trail etiquette is likely to take much longer. To that, we should all strive to set a positive example.

[dbb]

Inspection at noon today shows no real improvement. Developer is aware and is working to get trail reopened. Some in ArCo seem to feel that MOT allowed a “walk your bike” segment
[ATTACH=CONFIG]29105[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29106[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29107[/ATTACH]

[dbb]

Crystal City Connector at the Water Park was a shit show this afternoon. The contractor dug a trench across the ramp down to the tunnel. Gotta love this stuff.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29103[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29104[/ATTACH]

I logged a service ticket with Arlington. Remains to be seen what happens.

[dbb]

The Dominion detour still needs a bit of work

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29083[/ATTACH]

There needs to be a ramp down from the sidewalk at the corner of Glebe and Rt 1 along Glebe. Right now riders are forced to use the sidewalk ramp with takes you into the space motorists are using for their right turns.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29084[/ATTACH]

A ramp along the Glebe curbline would provide positive separation between bikes and cars

Final pesky detail is that the signs are wrong, with the directional arrows sending cyclists across Rt 1 rather than west on Glebe[ATTACH=CONFIG]29085[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]29086[/ATTACH]

I’ve loaded another report a problem ticket for both issues, in addition to the one submitted earlier about the barrels in the lane

[dbb]

Yes for backpack. I carried my laptop every day for a decade in an Osprey backpack and never had a problem. Granted, it was a work laptop and I would have just been annoyed if a problem did occur.

When it was raining a lot, I’d put the rain cover on the backpack and put the laptop in a trash bag. Never got wet.

[dbb]

@bentbike33 211712 wrote:

Maybe we can get a custom version of these.

The cost would actually be half that shown as a prudent rider would only wear one, on their non-chain side. If one insists on riding with the pair, spraying the right one with chain cleaner or lube would put the inevitable contact to good use.

[dbb]

Maybe some political leaders might be able to encourage the local police departments to do more that an two afternoons twice a year enforcement effort. I’d expect it would be somewhat like fishing in a stocked pond. Ideally it would include citations and fines but I suppose queuing up the violators for a half hour or so and giving them a warning might have some effect. Maybe the timeout would have some value.

[dbb]

@Steve O 211291 wrote:

Given that Rte 1 and Rte 110 are essentially the same road. Does Rte 110 also have a bike prohibition? If not, at what point traveling south on 110 would a cyclist suddenly be riding illegally? I am certain there is no signage.

All this is more or less moot currently, since – as Dana points out – virtually no one would ever ride a bike on these roads anyway.

Funny you should mention Rt 110. I have been trying on figuring out where 110 ends and Rt 1 begins as the speed limit changes from 45 to 35 (Arlington Code). Right now the first 35 mph sign is just north of 18th St, about 1/4 of the way down Rt 1.

They are looking for the info to locate that point. Too much fun.

[Author]

Posts