Future Bicycle Projects in Arlington County

It's an ambitious list:

UPDATE: I want to clarify where this list came from. It is a list presented to the Arlington BAC of projects within the county's Master Transportation Plan. This is not the limit of what they're working on, but a subset. There are other projects (both capital and non-capital) that the bike and pedestrian team is working on that are not on this list.

I would say that if you note a part of a trail that needs attention, you should reach out to them and let them know. Part of their job is to make cycling in Arlington easy and safe and they take it seriously.

Funded, Under Construction or Constructed Expected in (CY) 2010:

Arlington Blvd. Trail - VDOT construction in 2010-2012
Boundary Channel Bridge Underpass Trails - partially under construction by NPS
Crystal Drive & Potomac Ave Bike Lanes - partially complete
Metro Bike Station Parking Enhancement - Ballston and Clarendon in 2010
Old Dominion Drive Bike Lanes - under construction
Old Jefferson Davis Hwy Bike Lanes - begin construction in 2010
Washington Blvd Trail Phase 2 - to construct in 2010
Columbia Pike Parallel Bike Routes - Design nearly complete for first phase
W&OD Trail Crossing at Shirlington Road - Designed, construction in 2010
Clarendon Connector - Designed, construction in 2010
Fairfax Drive Trail Connectors - Designed, construction in 2010
14th/15th N. Bike Route Bike Lanes - partially marked, complete in 2010
Bike Parking at County Facilities - Arlington Cultural Center, Yorktown HS in 2010

Bicycle Parking in Commercial Areas - Columbia Pike completed; some installations elsewhere in 2010

Transit Station Bicycle Parking  - Shirlington completed; Clarendon install in 2010, Ballston in design for 2010 construction

Partially Funded, In Design or Approval:

Arlington Blvd South Side Trail Extension - feasibility study
S. Joyce Street Bike Lanes - awaiting street repaving
Rosslyn Circle Area Improvements - In design and EA development
Route 110 South Trail Paving - In design and EA development
Bluemont Park to Upton Hill Trail - Concept design and property negotiation
Pentagon Area Trail - FHWA is pursuing design
W&OD Crossing at Columbia Pike - Implement with Columbia Pike streetscape
Arlington Blvd Trail Renovation - Partially designed, some construction in 2010
Four Mile Run Bridge - working cooperatively with Alexandria and NVRA
Bike Parking at County Facilities - additional installations will require more funding
Bicycle Parking in Commercial Areas - additional installations will require funding
Transit Station Bicycle Parking - Rosslyn and Pentagon City upgrades tied to larger projects; Crystal City and East Falls Church currently not programmed

Near Term Priorities for Funding (in addition to completing partially funded projects):

Custis Trail Renovation
Four Mile Run Trail Widening (North)
North Tract – Mount Vernon Trail Connection
Four Mile Run Trail Widening (South)
Four Mile Run and W&OD Trail Connector (Shirlington Road)
On-Street Bicycle Route Safety Assessment: Part of an effort to enhance bikeways system wayfinding

Comments

[Adrian Fenty]

The current rails need to be REPAVED!!!!

Why cant anyone see this!!!!

The first rule is to preserve what you have!!!!!

Damn this is infuriating. The CCT from the boathouse in DC up to the River Road needs repaving...some of this stretch BADLY needs repaving, esp in DC!!!!

Mt Vernon trail from Rosslyn to ALexandria needs repaving-- it's awful all the way.

The Custis/WOD is horrible from the crossover bridge at RT 29 in Cherrydale to at least the Beltway. Sections along here are HORRIBLE!!!! (the stretch under/and along 66 were redone but that is all.)

I could go on. Many of the new trails, like the hisrling under bridges connection from the airport to Shirlington, ARE NOT EVEN smooth enough for travel at 15mph on 700x32c tires at 50 psi!!!

When trials are repaved, who makes sure the repaving is SMOOTH?!!! The persons doing the paving have no conception of who and how these trails are used! Why doesnt Gabe Klein inspect for the quality of trails!?
and roads? Ride down Nebraska into Rock Creek Park: the road is NOT NOT NOT smooth and it is brand f******g new!!!

It is so frustrating, esp given that the street surface is such pieces of crap. I wonder how long itll be before 14th street is repaved!! or M street? Or East Capitol? Or... theyre all horrible and embarassing.

Part of the problem is repaving cement roads with ony three to four inches of asphalt -- this only works under light use for a few years, then the road asphalt cracks every ten feet, at the exact location of the cement joints below!!!

[Wayne Phyillaier]

Adrian:

Don't get excited about not seeing any repaving of trails on the list until we know more about how the budget process works in Arlington County.

Arlington County might separate construction projects from maintenance like Montgomery County does in its budgets. There, construction projects come from a CIP budget and maintenance is funded in an entirely separate Annual Operating Budget. The funding mechanism is different for the two, with the CIP budget able to access funds from bonds while the Operating Budget cannot.

So we probably need to see another list of the funding for maintenance in Arlington County to know what the situation is on repaving trails. If there is no repaving on that list, then I'm with you.

[washcycle]

@Adrian,

None of the trails you mentioned are under the purview of Gabe Klein or DDOT - though some of the streets are. Most of your anger should be directed at NPS (for the CCT, Mt Vernon and Rock Creek). Also, what Wayne said.

[Froggie]

Adrian mentions the Mt. Vernon Trail, which IMO doesn't so much need a resurfacing as it needs either a widening or a separate pedestrian path...

And yes, I realize this would require a complete shake-up at NPS to accomplish...

[Scott F]

FWIW, the Custis Trail is maintained by Arlington County, and the W&OD by the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority. But this past fall, I rode often on the segments of both trails that "Adrian" describes, and I don't recall any of it being particularly bad.

If anything's in serious need of repaving, it's the sidepath on South Walter Reed Drive (Four Mile Run Trail to Rt. 7). Huge cracks and bumps there.

[Adrian F.]

Scott F:

Your wrong. Your remarks are typical: define "not bad." WHICH segments did you ride on and HOW OFTEN do you ride on them?
OF the folks that commute and of those who ride more than 100 miles a week yer round, the WOD is well known as a piece of crap. From Falls Church Metro all the way past Reston (and Reston area of the WOD is real piece of crap!), the trail is an insult to a culture that claims to provide high quality services...esp. given that there are few IF ANY places to ride safely in ALL OF NORTHEN VIRGINIA all the way out to Purceville, trail connectivity is CRUCIAL for DC based cyclists.

AS for Gabe KLein: ask him why the roads are WORSE after being repaved or resurfaced...ride down Nebraska, ride down Reno, ride down any street where theres been a street cut.

Washcycle could doa whole segment on why DC insists on cutting upa sreet for acess in little squares, and then instead of repaving the whole street then only repave the (often as many as 20 5x5 foot) squares! examples are ll over the city. Naturally with that many seams then exposed, the weather exposes the edge and it becomes much more lousy much faster than if the whoe street had been repaved. Its stupid. ASk Gabe Klein why they do this.

[washcycle]

@Adrian, are you sure it's DDOT that does this? I think the cuts you describe are probably done by the utility companies - and that is one thing that Gabe Klein has cracked down on. He's pulled the "blanket" permits the utility companies had to tear up streets and now DDOT is trying to manage those. In the past, the utility companies would tear it up, patch it badly and pay a minimal fee to the city to fix it later. The Post did a story maybe 10 years ago, when all the phone companies were tearing up the roads to support the internet business, that showed that those fees didn't cover the damage. There was a plan to raise the fees to match the cost, but I'm not sure this was ever addressed.

[Scott F]

Compared to other trails in the area I don't think those segments of the W&OD and Custis stand out as being most in need of fixing.

Have you ridden on the South Walter Reed Drive sidepath I mentioned? I guarantee you it's worse.

[Mark P.]

What is the source of this list? Can you post the link to where this all came from, I'd be interested in reading about each individual project. Things like "Clarendon Connector" I have no idea what they are.

[washcycle]

Unfortunately, I don't have a link and there isn't anymore information on what I have than what I gave you.

[Jeff]

I have to concur with Adrian, the trail quality of the Custis Trail and Mt. Vernon trails is abysmal. Coming from Falls Church City to DC, the best part of my ride is actually the stretch on the W&OD, the first few miles or so of the Custis are not bad but it gets worse starting around Glebe Road as one progress to Rosslyn. Starting late last year, someone painted yellow lines around places where tree roots raise the trail a few inches--I was hoping this would mean those areas would be repaved but alas the quality still stinks. Granted a wooden bridge on the W&OD between LIttle Falls St and Lee Hwy was replaced and a stretch of the Custis between Spout Run and Lee Hwy was repaved but that is a drop in the bucket of what should be repaved as far as I am concerned.

[MB]

The idea of those lines was to mark areas in need of repaving, yes. And a couple actually did get sorted. As one might imagine, the gap between the areas needing repaving and the budget for repaving is substantial.